Tangled Web
by Andromeda Silver
Summary: A bizarre client hires the team to stop military prototypes from being sold on the black market, but they soon find themselves ensnared in a web of deceit and lies. Murdock & Face reveal secrets from their pasts, and Mudock gets the girl, sorta...
1. The Client

Author's notes: 

1) I can't stand BA. Mr. T is the worst actor on the planet _in my opinion_. You can have a different opinion than mine, but don't try to change mine. We're free to do what we want. 

2) This fic takes place shortly before Season #5 begins. 

3) Alia is pronounced ALL—ee—ah. 

4) Don't own the team, and I'm not making any money on them. Finally, 

5) If I actually got too close to real places, events, etc., it wasn't intentional. Now just remember to use the power of your voice through reviewing. Thank you!

****

The sun shone brightly into the Chinese laundry's windows where "Mr. Lee" started setting up for the day's business. A prospective client for the A-Team by the name of Maggie Coltraine would be arriving at any minute. Unfortunately Hannibal hadn't been able to glean any information on this rather bookish blonde's reason for contacting the team since the woman vehemently refused to talk to any one of Hannibal's "personalities," until he finally mentioned Mr. Lee's laundry. Then Miss Coltraine said she would speak only to the Chinese man.

_Very odd_, Hannibal thought to himself as he absent mindedly swept the floor. _Miss Coltraine has checked out so far, but usually the clients want to pour out their story to everyone they meet. Let's see what this one has to offer the A-Team._

Hannibal leaped into his role as Mr. Lee as the bell on the door chimed. In walked a tall woman with long, dark hair, almond-shaped hazel eyes, olive skin, and a cool composure. She dressed oddly, her style more fitting for the previous decade, in heeled black boots, bellbottom jeans, a red tank top, and a black, mid-thigh length leather jacket. Huge gold hoop earrings dangled from her ears and several gold bracelets jingled on her wrists.

_Who the heck is this woman?_ thought "Mr. Lee." _She's definitely not Maggie Coltraine. Let's see what she wants. "Ah, good morning, Miss," he said in his best pidgin Chinese. "How I help you?"_

"Good morning, Mr. Lee," the woman said in a melodious low voice, "or should I say, Hannibal Smith."

Hannibal couldn't help staring at the woman. She couldn't have seen through his disguise; he was a master. "I sorry, Miss," he tried to recover, "but I no know who you talk about."

The woman smiled and laughed heartily. "You know exactly what I'm talking about, Colonel Smith. You pass all your prospective clients for the A-Team through this song and dance. I can't believe someone didn't blow your act long ago; your disguise is so poor. No Chinese man has your blue eyes. A little hint: a Caucasian male can't pass himself off as anything but a Caucasian male."

"Listen to me, Miss," Mr. Lee growled. "I no know what you want, but I say there no way you find A-Team here! You get out! Now!"

The woman smiled smugly. "555-6930," she said simply. "I hope I don't have to remind you whose number that is, Colonel Smith."

Hannibal's eyes widened. "You wouldn't dare call Colonel Decker and the MPs on me!" he whispered threateningly. "I could kill you any moment I want to."

Again the woman laughed. "You couldn't kill me, Colonel Smith. Besides, I contacted Colonel Decker and his boys before I came here. The whole posse should be arriving in..." she glanced at her watch, "ooh, sixty seconds. Give or take half a minute of course. I suggest you scram now."

Hannibal discarded his disguise and glared at the woman. "If you weren't a woman, I'd break your jaw. But since you are, I'm taking you with me as a hostage. C'mon!" He grabbed the woman's arm and dragged her toward the back of the store. She didn't resist much. If he didn't know better, Hannibal might have thought that the woman actually wanted to be taken as a prisoner.

Sirens wailed in the distance when Hannibal and the woman reached the back alley. "My car is over there," the woman pointed to a black vintage Ford Mustang convertible parked at one end of the alley and pulled a set of keys out of a pocket. Hannibal tried to snatch them, but the woman kept them out of his reach. "I drive and I come quietly," she said firmly.

"Fine with me," Hannibal replied, "but I'm afraid I'm going to have to use this on you." He pulled out a pistol and trained it on his prisoner. The woman clicked her tongue in disapproval, vaulted over the driver side door and into the driver's seat. Hannibal hopped in the passenger seat as the woman started the car and pulled calmly out of the alley onto the main road.

"Hey, lady," said Hannibal, "we've got the military police on our tails and you're driving as if we're going to church."

"If I floor it through downtown LA, we're going to have a lot more people taking notice of us than just Decker and his boy scouts," the woman pointed out. 

"Good point. What exactly did you tell Decker anyway?" asked Hannibal.

"Not much," replied the woman, "just that the A-Team would be doing business down at Mr. Lee's Chinese laundry. Nothing about you being Mr. Lee."

"Don't you think that perhaps Decker will catch on when he finds the place abandoned with my disguise lying around?"

"The place isn't abandoned." This strange woman's voice was infuriatingly calm. "I paid a Chinese friend of mine to cover for 'Mr. Lee' when Decker arrives. Just like I paid Maggie Coltraine to go seek out the team in the first place."

With that news, Hannibal ordered, "Pull over now!" and pointed his gun at the woman's head. The woman sighed and obeyed his order. "All right," he growled when the woman cut the engine,  "who the hell are you and what kind of game are you playing with me? Are you a government plant, because if you are--"

The woman laughed, cutting Hannibal off. "Decker thinks he used me to get to you when it's really the other way around."

"Who are you?" he repeated, nosing the muzzle of the pistol into the woman's shoulder.

"Whoever you want me to be, handsome," she laughed. When Hannibal pressed the gun harder into her flesh, she threw him a look that a disappointed mother would give a mildly bothersome child. "Fine, if you really want to know, my name is Teagan. Alia Teagan."

Hannibal holstered his gun. "That's more like it. Wait... is your father Alistair Teagan, the shipping magnate who was kidnapped a week ago?"

"Yes, the one and only. I came to get the A-Team's help in bringing him home. I needed to make sure you guys were legit and would be interested enough to listen to my story."

"Well, Miss Teagan, you sure have a way of getting a man's attention," said Hannibal as he reached into a coat pocket. He sighed, "Damn! Face has my cigars."

Alia smiled yet again. "So are you interested?"

"Well, obviously you can pay our bill, so why not?"

"Now do I get to meet the rest of the elusive A-Team?"

****

Face paced around his "borrowed" apartment while BA lounged on the couch and watched TV.

"Hey, Face," said BA, "why don't you ever scam me and Hannibal a place like this?"

Face paused and replied, "Do you have any idea what I went through to get this place? There's no way I could...acquire two apartments like this without raising suspicion. Speaking of which, Hannibal should be back here by now."

"You think the MPs got him?"

"Nah, I saw him run out to the back alley as we peeled out. Yep, I bet he stopped and picked up a blonde at the café around the corner."

"Face, that's what you'd do! Hannibal knows to regroup after a visit from Decker."

The doorknob turned and Hannibal walked in escorting a rather dark and attractive woman.

Face smiled and adjusted his tie. "See? Didn't I tell you?"

BA frowned. "You said a blonde."

"Blonde, brunette...close enough," Face shrugged.

"BA, Face," said Hannibal grinning, "meet our new client."

Face looked quizzically at the woman, then asked, "I thought you said Maggie Coltraine was a blonde with glasses, Hannibal."

"You're exactly right," replied the woman. "I'm Alia Teagan." She extended her hand toward Face and smiled as they shook hands.

"Alia wants to hire us to rescue her kidnapped father, Alistair Teagan," explained Hannibal.

Face stared. "You mean the guy that's been hailed as the next Aristotle Onassis who was kidnapped last week?"

"The one and only," Alia answered.

Face smiled. "That's pretty interesting since Alistair Teagan doesn't have a daughter. He only has a son, Alistair Teagan II. It's in all the morning papers." He took a newspaper off the counter and handed it to Hannibal.

Hannibal skimmed the indicated article and glared at Alia. "BA, cover her!" he barked. BA leaped to his feet, grabbed Alia's arms, and pinned them behind her. Hannibal pulled out his pistol again and prodded Alia's collarbone with it.

"This is the second time you've lied to me in the span of a half hour," growled the Colonel. "Who are you really and who are you working for?"

"You know, I never actually lied to you before now," Alia replied matter-of-factly.

_Doesn't anything bother this woman?_ thought Hannibal as Alia tried to suppress another smirk.

"I never led you to believe that I was Maggie Coltraine or anyone else for that matter," Alia continued. "All I said was that I hired people to help me find you guys so I could hire you. So I gave you a false last name. Is that any different than you, Hannibal, playing dress up and leading customers all over downtown LA to check the legitimacy of their stories? Or you, Face, pretending to be an inspector of some sort so that you can get supplies for the team?"

"Quit playing games," Hannibal snarled. "What-- is-- your-- name!" He jabbed the gun's muzzle into the woman's arm on each word.

The woman sighed. "Fine, fine. I didn't lie about my first name, Alia. My last name is Benekopoulos. Happy?"

"Blech, that's a mouthful!" BA made a face.

Alia tried to shrug. "That's what you get for being Greek."

"Who do you work for?" asked Face.

"As of now, I happen to be self-employed, thank you very much," Alia replied.

"Why did you come looking for us?" questioned Hannibal. "Answer before I tell BA here to break your arm."

Alia laughed. "You wouldn't!" BA twisted her arms and she yelped. "Ok, I see you will. I went through this convoluted method because there are guys trying to find me."

"These guys wouldn't happen to be the cops, would they?" Face asked sarcastically.

"No," answered Alia. "I used to work for Alliance Technologies developing some top secret weapons and the like for a major government contract. One day, I found documents that revealed that my boss was planning on selling the blueprints of all our prototypes to the Russians, Chinese, or whoever was the highest bidder. My boss and his lackeys found out that I discovered their scheme and decided to kill me before I could get to the authorities. I figured you guys could help get me out of trouble and get these traitors locked up where they belong. It was easy enough to get in touch with Colonel Decker through my government sources at Alliance and sucker him into helping me find you."

Face turned to his superior officer. "You know," he said, half smiling, "there's one thing that doesn't make sense. For someone who is supposedly marked for death, you seem awfully calm and willing to crack jokes, Alia."

Alia laughed heartily. Her extremely good disposition was starting to creep her captors out. "I see no point in panicking and making the situation worse, so I've been hyped up on Valium for the past week or two," the brunette replied. "Woo, my eyes are floating!"

Hannibal interrupted Alia's giggling. "Do you have the money to hire us?" he asked. "You know we can't work for free."

"Wait a minute, Colonel," interjected Face. "Don't you think that maybe we should check and make sure that we're not getting ourselves lured into some sort of trap before we start worrying about the cash? After all, she did just lie to us."

Alia lost her blissful attitude. "Look, do you want the job or not, pretty boy?" she snapped. "If you look in my purse, you'll find more than six grand. I can get you more money if you need it. Don't worry about infiltrating; I know every possible entrance, exit, and code to bypass security systems. You'll be in, out, and on your merry way in a matter of an hour at most."

Hannibal nodded to Face and the lieutenant took Alia's purse. He rummaged through it and smiled after he found a large wad of bills. "Looks like she was at least telling the truth about the money."

The brunette shrugged. "So are you in or out?"

"Where is this government lab that you work at?" asked Hannibal, gun still in hand.

BA frowned. "I ain't gettin' in no plane, especially with her!" he growled.

Alia rolled her eyes. "Ah, yes, the great big aerophobe," she sighed. "I drove here from the lab in New Mexico. It's pretty near the Arizona border and a good fourteen to sixteen boring hours as a straight shot in a car from here. That's all dependent on traffic and how fast you drive. Is there anything else that you would like to know? Birthday, social security number..."

"No, that'll do, Miss…" replied Hannibal.

"Alia, please," the woman smiled. "I hate my last name."

"Well, looks like you're going to have to bust Murdock out of the VA, Face," said the colonel as he holstered his pistol and stuck a cigar between his teeth. "That is if everyone is in agreement to take Alia's offer."

_Heck_, thought Face. _Money is money after all. Besides, what could possibly happen? I mean, besides me getting lucky with her. "Why of course, Colonel," he replied and grinned back at Alia._

"Now will you please let go of me, Mr. Baracus?" the brunette asked indignantly. "I probably have bruises where your rings gouged my flesh."

BA growled and reluctantly released Alia. The woman immediately rubbed her arms to get her circulation back. She tossed her long, silk-like hair over her shoulder and set her hands on her hips. "We'd better get cracking if we're going to stop those traitors before they sell those blueprints to the Commies, guys," she said simply.

"Perhaps you would care to help me go get the fourth member of our group, Alia?" asked Face with all of his famous charm he could muster.

"Sure, Face," smiled Alia as the two linked arms. "But I get to drive."

After Murdock's rescue team left, BA turned to his commanding officer. "I don't trust her, Hannibal," he growled. "'Alia' sounds too much like 'alias' to me."

The colonel found a cigar on the counter and lit it. "I don't think I'll turn my back on her either, BA," he replied as smoke rings floated around his head. "She's reminding me of that woman we ran into when we rescued Murdock's Dr. Richter that time. We need the cash though. Why don't you run an employee check at Alliance Tech? There can't be many Alia Bene…whatevers floating around."

"I'm no good at fact-finding missions. You know that's Face's job."

"Just ask information for the number for Alliance Technologies' New Mexico plant and then tell whoever answers that we've found their employee, Alia. Whoever is tracking her down will love to know where she's gone. If you don't want to do it, I will."

****

"Your Mustang's nice, but I prefer my Corvette," Face said as he and Alia parked outside the VA hospital.

"Do you have something against Fords?" asked Alia.

"No," he replied defensively, "I just prefer my 'Vette."

"That thing is hideous! The orange stripe ruins that otherwise beautiful car, not to mention the fact that you can spot it a mile away. Not exactly a good surveillance vehicle."

"It's more of a getaway car than anything else."

"Yeah, sure it is. I bet my antique could outstrip that eyesore any day of the week."

Face changed the subject. "All right, Alia, watch and learn from a pro." He climbed out of the car and began walking toward the hospital's entrance.

"Hey!" Alia exclaimed as she slammed her door behind her. "Where do you think you're going?"

"I'm scamming Murdock out of the VA," he replied, confused. "Why do you ask?"

"I've got a better plan than whatever harebrained scheme you've got rattling around in that thick head of yours in my trunk."

"Oh really? And what might that be?" the lieutenant asked as he walked back towards the car with his hands in his pockets.

Alia smiled evilly as she popped the trunk and rummaged around inside. Face looked over her shoulder and saw two identical suitcases.

"How are suitcases going to get Murdock out of there?" he scoffed. "What are you going to do, walk in and beat the staff over the head with your luggage?"

Alia sighed. "It's what's _in the suitcases that matters. Especially this one." She opened the one on her right, revealing three large wine bottles packed securely in foam molds. She carefully took one out, popped the cork, and stuffed a grease rag into its neck._

"Ummm…" Face adjusted his tie and gestured to the bottle. "What is that?"

"A Molotov cocktail," replied Alia nonchalantly as she pulled a lighter out of her jacket pocket.

"Are you _crazy_?! What are you doing with three Molotov cocktails in your trunk?"

"Setting off the fire alarm."

"Obviously, but _why_?"

Alia rolled her eyes. She said every word slowly and illustrated them with hand gestures as if she were talking to a toddler. "When the fire alarm goes off, all the patients and staff have to exit the building. That means Murdock will be leaving too. When that happens, everything will be in utter chaos. The nurses and orderlies won't notice if one patient is missing. All you have to do is call Murdock up on my mobile phone and tell him the plan while I light this baby and hurl it at the hospital. Get it? Good!" Alia smiled, handed Face the phone, patted him on the head, and sauntered off whistling _Bridge On the River Kwai_ with the lieutenant staring after her, gaping.

"It finally happened," Face muttered to himself as he dialed his friend's number. "I found someone crazier than Murdock."

****

Alarms blared as one section of the VA exploded into flames. Patients and doctors flooded out of the building and onto the lawn. Face stared in disbelief at the chaos as Alia came sauntering back to the Mustang, admiring her handiwork.

"Isn't it beautiful?" sighed the brunette. Once she saw the lieutenant's expression she said, "Don't worry. I didn't hit the ICU or anything like that. I got a little used stairwell that was under construction. No one got seriously injured, if anyone got injured at all." She jumped up and sat on the trunk of the Mustang. "You called Murdock, right?"

"Yeah," Face replied, tearing his gaze away from the conflagration that fire trucks now rushed to put to an end. "He knows where we are. He should be coming any second now."

"So…" Alia began as Face scanned the crowd, "What does this Murdock look like anyway?"

"Murdock's a rather unusual character," he answered. "Brown hair, usually wears a baseball cap and a leather jacket…"

"Is he also very slim and tall?" she asked, pointing to a man walking towards them that fit both Face and Alia's descriptions.

"Yeah, there he is!" Face waved to get Murdock's attention. The captain waved back and started jogging towards the Mustang. "Probably should start the car so we can get out of here quick." Face turned to Alia to see her smiling and waving back at Murdock.

"Are you even listening to me, Alia?" the lieutenant asked.

"Of course I am, but I at least want to say hi to Murdock," replied Alia. "Mmm…tall, dark, and handsome, just the way I like 'em!"

_Dammit, I'm losing her to Murdock!_ thought Face. He opened his mouth to try to win the brunette over with his famous charm, but the pilot arrived before he could utter a sound.

"Hey, Face!" interrupted Murdock as he halted in front of his friend and Alia. "What's with your plan to scam me out and that weird phone call? Didja actually set fire to this place?" He indicated the VA hospital with his thumb over his shoulder.

"I told you, Murdock," Face retorted, pointing accusingly at Alia. "I'm not the arsonist. She is! Do you know what she did? She used a Molotov cocktail out of her trunk! What type of maniac keeps Molotov cocktails in her trunk?"

"A very prepared maniac who happened to get the job done, thank you very much," replied Alia.

"Who's this?" asked Murdock. "She doesn't seem to be your type, Face."

"Believe it or not, she's our new client," Face answered.

"Hell-ooo!" Alia waved her arms to try to catch the men's attention. "Am I invisible to you?"

 Face ignored the brunette. "Alia Bene…ah… Benna…Benak…Ben… just call her Alia."

Alia rolled her eyes. "It's Benekopoulos. Jeez, how hard is it?"

"Let's just get out of here before someone notices that Murdock's missing," said Face.

"Aww," Alia cooed. "You're mad because you didn't get to flirt with the nurses, aren't you, Facey-Wacey?"

Face waved a finger in warning. "Knock it off, you! If you weren't a woman, I'd…"

"Pound me?" Alia batted her eyes. "Like I haven't heard that one before. Besides that, I doubt you could do much more damage than a few bruises." Face glared daggers at the brunette, but she merely examined her nails while humming.

A smile slowly spread across the lieutenant's face as an idea came to him. Alia perched precariously on the edge of the Mustang's waxed trunk, just asking for trouble.

Face grabbed Alia's arm and yanked her off her car, an audible pop coming from her shoulder as she hit the ground.

"Damn! I hate it when that happens," the brunette muttered, pushing herself up with her left hand. Her right arm hung at an odd angle, the shoulder obviously out of joint. "Don't smile too much, Peck. I'll wipe it off your face. You were just lucky I fell funny."

"Oh, I wasn't smiling about that," replied Face. He pulled a set of keys out of his pocket and dangled them in front of the woman. "_This_ is what I'm smiling about. I lifted your keys when you hit the pavement."

Alia narrowed her eyes. "You have no idea what you've just done, Peck. That Mustang is much more than a means of transportation to me. For taking my keys, you've just volunteered to pop my shoulder back into joint. Now stand still while I ram it into you!"

"GAAA! GET AWAY FROM ME, YOU NUTCASE!" Face yelled and darted madly around the parking lot, Alia in hot pursuit.

Murdock sighed. "I'm the resident nutcase and don't you forget it! Why else do you have to keep bustin' me outta here every time we get a job?"

"Stop moving, damn you!" shouted Alia as she tried to corner Face between parked cars. "It will only hurt for a few seconds, you wuss, especially if you run towards me. Then I might not have to ram you multiple times."

"Then why don't you run into a car or a tree?" Face retorted as he jumped over the hood of a sedan, narrowly missing the brunette.

"Where's the fun in that? Besides, you're nice and soft and squishy!"

"Please don't call me that!"

Murdock leaned against the Mustang, crossing his hands over his chest to watch the pandemonium. "I could really go for some popcorn right about now. Face, she's gainin' on you!"

"Do something, Murdock!" Face shouted as he darted past his friend with Alia on his heels.

"I thought you liked havin' women chase you," smiled Murdock.

Face lapped Murdock again. "I don't think this one's entirely human!"

"Hey! Stop acting as if I'm not here, you wimp!" huffed Alia.

Murdock sighed as the brunette ran towards him once more. _Looks like I'm the one that has to get the group outta here before we get into trouble_, he thought.

When Alia passed by him, the captain grabbed her right arm and yanked on it with all his strength. The brunette's arm made a loud snap as she was almost pulled off her feet. Face finally stopped running and smiled, thinking Murdock had at least sprained her arm.

Alia looked rather confused for a few moments as she tried rotating her right shoulder. As she realized that Murdock had popped her arm back into its socket, a wide grin spread across her face. "Hey, you fixed it! Thanks, man!"

"It was nothin'," the captain replied.

"Isn't that refreshing," said Alia, hands on her hips as she checked Murdock out. "A real man for a change. And not only is he not grossed out easily, he's polite too! Somehow I think that you two got switched somewhere so that Face should be staying at the VA and Murdock out on the streets."

"Actually, we did get switched around once," Murdock commented. "Remember, Face? You got that phony pardon an' I took your place in the team, but then you came back. You insisted that it was easy bein' me an' the guys from the VA grabbed you instead of me? You shoulda seen your face as they dragged you out with that straightjacket!"

"I thought we had an agreement, Murdock," Face growled. "We would never mention that incident again."

"But, but, but…" stuttered Murdock.

"NEVER mention it again!" Face cut in, a vein starting to throb in his forehead.

Alia wrapped an arm around the captain. "Ooo, dirt on the Faceman! You and I should talk, Murdock."

"Later!" Murdock exclaimed and pointed at a couple of orderlies the size of linebackers that caught sight of him and rushed towards the Mustang. Murdock jumped over the side of the car and into the back. "Let's go, muchachos!"

Face tried to get into the driver seat, but Alia beat him to it. "Move over!" the lieutenant yelled. "I've got the keys!"

"Unless you want to be a eunuch I suggest you hand them over now, bucko!" Alia yelled back.

Face's eyes popped out of his head. "Here!" he replied and tossed the key ring to the brunette.

"Seatbelts!" said Alia as she strapped herself in and started the car. Face jumped into the front and the brunette threw the Mustang into reverse. Just as the orderlies caught up to the trio, the tires screamed and the Mustang shot into afternoon traffic.

****

To be continued…


	2. Suiting Up

A few annoying author's notes before getting on with the show: This is where the R rating comes in: lots of swearing. For those of you who read Chapter 1 when I first posted, Alliance Technologies is now in Las Cruces since there's a huge government complex there, making it a much more logical setting than Lordsburg. And of course, I only own Alia and those surrounding her that weren't created by Stephen J. Cannell, etc. Now on with the story!

****

Back at the apartment, Hannibal stubbed out his cigar and hung up the phone. "Well, Alia Benekopoulos worked at Alliance Tech's Las Cruces, New Mexico, lab until she disappeared a week ago," he told an agitated BA. "Apparently her supervisor, Gordon Jones, is offering a hefty reward for her return. It seems Alia was working on several top-secret projects that rival nations would pay through the nose for copies of the plans, and whenever someone calls asking for Alia, the call is immediately transferred to Jones. Looks like Alia and her story check out after all."

"I still don't like it, Hannibal," BA growled. "She lied to us!"

"I understand that, BA, but I believe that she was just testing us. We already had a bunch of guys impersonate us. And, as I said before, we really need that six grand. All those charity gigs drained us of most of our supplies and cash."

Suddenly a man and a woman's shouts echoed down the corridor of the apartment building. Face practically kicked in the door cradling his red, slightly swollen left hand with Alia still yelling at him. Murdock walked in behind the bickering couple covering his ears and rolling his eyes. Both Hannibal and BA shot him quizzical looks, trying to figure out what happened during the rescue mission.

"Blondie sucks!" Alia hollered in Face's ear. "_One Way or Another is like __It's a Small World: once you hear it, it won't get out of your head!"_

"Oh yeah, and David Bowie and Queen are better?" Face shouted back.

"At least they don't seem to have a lack of lyrics!"

Face stomped over to the freezer, grabbed an ice pack, and held it on his left hand. "You know, you didn't have to try to break my hand over music," he grumbled.

"I told you not to touch my radio, but did you listen, _no!" the brunette shot back. "Besides, if I wanted to break your hand, or anything else for that matter, I would've succeeded!"_

Finally, Murdock stuck two fingers in his mouth and let out an ear-shattering whistle, silencing the bickering couple. The pilot sighed. "Colonel, they've been like this since I met 'em at the VA an' now I've got one _gonzo headache from lisnin' to 'em yell at one 'nother for the entire ride here."_

Hannibal tried to suppress a smile. "Losing your touch, Lieutenant?"

"No!" Face retorted. "This woman is a psychopath! She used Molotov cocktails to get everyone to evacuate the VA."

"You are such a pathological liar," groaned Alia. "It was only _one Molotov cocktail. Can't you even get something that simple straight?"_

Hannibal paused in the middle of lighting another cigar. "Let me get this straight, Face. You set fire to the hospital instead of scamming Murdock out?"

"I didn't do it!" replied Face, exasperated. "Alia keeps Molotov cocktails handy in her car trunk and decided to use one of them instead of busting Murdock out the less destructive way."

"Hey!" Alia retorted. "I got Murdock out without injuring anyone, didn't I? You know, it would've taken half the time of one of your pathetic cons and no one would've seen us if _you hadn't popped my shoulder out of joint and stolen my keys!"_

"Face!" exclaimed Hannibal with half feigned shock. "That's bad for business! How is it going to look when someone hears that we abuse out clients?"

"But, Hannibal!" Face whined.

"No buts, Face. We need to get moving if we want to be near Phoenix by nightfall."

"We goin' to Arizona?" asked Murdock.

"No, New Mexico," Hannibal replied.

Murdock's round, chocolate eyes lit up. "Roswell, New Mexico?"

"We're not going that far east," answered Alia. "I live in a town near Las Cruces."

"Aw, man! I wanted a chance at seeing some aliens!" moaned the pilot.

"Well, the neighbor's lawn gnomes look pretty damn weird," Alia added quickly. "And there are plenty of illegal Mexicans hanging around."

Hannibal clapped Murdock and Face on the back. "C'mon, guys," he said as he puffed on his cigar, "we have a lot of ground to cover. Jones and his lackeys should be on their way here as we speak."

Alia almost fell on the floor as she tried to hop up onto the counter. "Why would my boss and his men be heading for LA?" she asked suspiciously. "I didn't leave a trail for them to follow. I'm not some dumb ass chick, though _some of you might think that." She glared at Face._

Hannibal smiled his patent "on the jazz" grin and removed the cigar from his mouth. "I called up Alliance Tech's Las Cruces lab to check your story while you were out. It turns out your boss, Gordon Jones, has a hefty reward for any information on your whereabouts or for anyone who brings you home in one piece. I told him that I'd be bringing you east on Interstate 10 to Las Cruces, New Mexico, alone. Jones undoubtedly sent some of his henchmen to intercept us halfway through the trip to nab you."

"Are you fucking _nuts?!" cried Alia. "They're going to fucking kill me, dammit! Why the hell do you think I came here in the first place? You're supposed to keep them from murdering me, not hand them the gun to shoot me with!"_

"Whoa, whoa, whoa there!" Murdock interrupted the brunette's tirade. "Let me get a few things straightened out. One: I'm the one who's nuts! Why else would I spend ten years in the psychiatric ward in the VA hospital? Two: Hannibal's plans may not seem like they're gonna work, but they always do. Three: Your language is as bad or worse than anythin' I heard in 'Nam!"

"Hey, if you had psychos trying to kill you and your only hope was a whacko guy, a guy who hates your guts, a suicidal leader, and a guy that looks like a bearded dyke, you'd be swearing your head off too!" Alia retorted.

BA snarled and lunged for the brunette, his gold-encrusted fists swinging dangerously close to her face. Alia squeaked in terror, grabbed Face by the arm, and threw him at the enraged sergeant as a human shield. While she tore off towards the other end of the apartment, Murdock and Hannibal tried to restrain BA, and Face attempted to block the black man's blows with his arms.

"BA, calm down!" said Murdock as he struggled to pin the sergeant's right arm to his side. "Leave Faceman alone! Besides, you can't kill our client!"

"She already paid us our normal fee," replied BA as he ceased beating on his fellow team members. "Why can't we kill her?"

Face opened one eye to make sure the black man wasn't going to hit him again, then lowered his arms. "BA has a good point," he said. "Why can't we let him kill the jerk and bury her out in some back lot, or at least let him slap her around a bit?"

"Because you think I'm cute?" Alia called from the bedroom.

"Yeah, cute like a vampire rabbit!" Face retorted.

"You mean like the white one in _Monty Python's Search for the Holy Grail?" asked Murdock._

"The one that bit off the guys' heads?" Face questioned. Murdock nodded. "Yeah, that's Alia all right. The whole squeaking bit cinches it."

"You squeaked when I smacked your hand, wussy!" retorted Alia as she poked her head out from the bedroom.

"That was _not a squeak!" Face replied defensively. "That was a gasp of pain."_

"Uh, no, Face," Murdock interrupted. "That 'EEK!' was definitely a squeak."

"Whose side are you on, Murdock?" the lieutenant muttered.

Alia sauntered out of the bedroom and into the kitchen. "He's on the side that will help him get laid," she purred. "Something that seems to be totally alien to you, Peck."

Face glared daggers. "Why you little --!" he growled as he charged for Alia. Murdock tried to grab his friend as the brunette dashed back towards the bedroom door, but Face shook him off. The lieutenant closed in on Alia, but she reached the bedroom first and slammed the door in his face. Face had too much momentum and couldn't stop on the linoleum. He hit the door with such force, he fell to the floor.

Normally Murdock wouldn't have laughed at his friend's pain, but the whole scene was so comical that he couldn't help himself. It started with a small chuckle, then escalated to a full-blown cackle. _Shit! Murdock thought. __I'm gonna hafta run like a jackrabbit too if I don't shut myself up! _

Face lay spread eagle on his back, trying to figure out whom he should kill first. Hannibal didn't make things easier by grinning ear to ear. For once it seemed that the only one on his side was BA. "Why me?" moaned the lieutenant. "Why do these things always happen to me?"

Hannibal walked over to Face and offered him a hand while trying unsuccessfully hide his smile. Alia poked her head out of the bedroom again to survey the situation. She smirked, "You make yourself such an easy target, Peck!"

"Face, you do have to admit that you walked right into that one," Hannibal replied as he hauled the lieutenant to his feet.

"More like you ran into it!" Murdock laughed.

Face straightened his suit and adjusted his tie. "I'm definitely not getting paid enough to put up with this abuse!" he muttered. "Are we going or not?" _The sooner this is over, the better._

"You have a point, Face," Hannibal replied. "It's getting late. Everybody get your stuff and meet at the van in five."

"Uh, you mean besides me, right?" asked Alia.

Hannibal turned to their client and asked, "Are you coming with us or not?"

Face almost danced a victory jig, but decided to save it. Instead he smiled hoping that Alia would be remaining behind for whatever reason. 

"I'm not getting in a moving motor vehicle with BA!" stated Alia. "I saw how you drive that ugly ride of yours. There's no way I'm riding in that van!" BA growled threateningly. "Besides," the brunette added quickly, "I have to get my Mustang back home."

"I ain't ridin' in any vehicle wi' you drivin'!" BA shot back.

"Looks like we're taking two vehicles," Hannibal mused as he finished his cigar.

****

Ten minutes later the team and their client assembled in the parking lot beside BA's van and Alia's Mustang. Alia had taken off her leather jacket and changed into jean cutoffs while the men gathered equipment. She scanned each of the men from head to toe and laughed as they loaded guns, ammunition, and other supplies into the rear of the van.

Face tossed a duffel into the back. "What's so funny?" he sneered. He'd hoped she would trip down the stairs and break her neck, but no such luck.

"You guys are going to _fry in Las Cruces!" smiled the brunette. "Do you have any idea how hot it gets in June? You have to open car doors with oven mitts! A tailored three-piece suit isn't the best thing to be wearing. Why else would I be wearing shorts?"_

_To taunt me with those legs of yours, Face thought. __Such a shame that legs like that had to come with that mouth of hers._

"Now Hannibal and Murdock here have the right idea," Alia continued. "Cotton breathes and safari gear is made for hot climates."

"All right," announced Hannibal as he shut the rear doors to the van, "time to move out!" He climbed into shotgun as Face jumped into the back. BA and Murdock crossed paths as they headed for their usual seats.

BA glared. "Now I don't want to hear nothin' 'bout no invisible things, Murdock! I get enough crazy talk from that fool we workin' for, got it?"

"Aw, BA, that's not very nice of you to be callin' Alia that," the captain replied, smiling mischievously. "Besides, Billy don't take up much room."

"Knock it off with your imaginary dog, fool!"

"Hey, Murdock!" called Alia from the front seat of the Mustang. "You and Billy can ride with me. I could use the company and Billy is such a cute dog! What kind is he anyway?"

"It's imaginary! There ain't no dog!" hollered BA as Murdock skipped towards the Mustang with Billy. The pilot opened the back door to the car and Billy jumped in. _Looks like I'm gettin' the girl this time 'round, he thought. _

Alia turned around in the driver's seat to scratch behind the invisible dog's ears. "He won't jump out will he, Murdock?" she asked.

"Nah," replied Murdock as he plopped into the passenger's seat, "Billy likes the wind. He doesn't get much in the van. Besides, he seems to really like you."

"And I really appreciate the company," purred Alia.

BA honked the van's horn. "Git movin'! We ain't got all day!" he yelled out the window.

"What's your problem?" Alia hollered back. She jumped up in her seat, balancing herself with one hand while making a variety of rude gestures with the other. "You jealous of Murdock or somethin'?"

"Hell no!" BA replied disgustedly.

"Then you wanna fight me? 'Cause I can bust up your kneecaps real good!"

Murdock interrupted Alia. "Let's just drive lead like we're supposed to, please?"

In the van, Hannibal leaned over to BA. "Just ignore her. She knows we've got to go now or not at all."

"You can beat her up later, BA," Face added. "I'll help."

"Guys, guys, guys! If you two hate our client so much, why did you agree to take the job?" asked Hannibal.

"You're the one that decides what jobs we take, Hannibal," BA answered.

"And Alia didn't show her true colors until we went to get Murdock," added Face.

"You're just sore that she seems to be impervious to your irresistible charm," Hannibal smiled around his cigar. _Actually, I think she's too smart to be his type, he thought, __but I won't tell Face. That's a little too harsh._

Finally Alia started her Mustang and pulled out into the pre-rush hour traffic with BA following close behind in the van.

When the convoy had made it safely onto the interstate, Alia shouted over the roar of the wind to Murdock. "I'm sorry for my behavior this afternoon. To put it bluntly, I couldn't help being my natural bitchtacular self."

"You know," replied Murdock, "you could try being a bit nicer to Faceman and BA. They're great guys once you get to know 'em." _Just don't get too friendly with Face, if you know what I mean._

"I tried, but BA's made up his mind that I'm not trustworthy," said the brunette. "I tried to explain that I had to make sure that the A-Team wasn't an urban legend or some sort of con for bleeding hearts, but I didn't convince him. Face, on the other hand, is much more complicated. Sure, he's charming and good-looking, but he doesn't seem to want to treat me as an equal. He's obviously a guy who considers women to be playthings. Frankly I want to be regarded as a human, just like every other sensible woman in the free world. I'm sure I can get that sort of treatment from you, Murdock. You come across as a fun, well-mannered guy."

Alia took a hand off the wheel and pretended to reach for the shifter, but instead grabbed the pilot's knee. "So what does H.M. stand for, anyway?" she purred. "Handsome Man?"

"Nope," Murdock replied, completely unperturbed on the outside, "Howlin' Mad!"

"I don't believe that one bit! From what I've seen so far, I'm crazier than you."

"Now that I find hard to believe."

"I set fire to the VA with Molotov cocktails I keep in my trunk to get you out."

"Good point, but I still maintain my name is Howlin' Mad Murdock."

"C'mon! No parent would name a child that! What's your _real name? Is it Henry? Harry? Humphrey?"_

"Humphrey? What kind of name is that?"

"Humphrey Bogart ring a bell?"

"How could I forget Bogie? Now I feel dumb."

"Oh, Murdock! You're definitely not dumb! How could you possibly think that? I read your military file before I came here to hire you guys. You are one brilliant man."

Murdock blushed. "Aww, you don't really mean that, Alia!"

"Of course I do! Tell me the truth; do you hate your first and middle names?"

"I don't remember."

"How can you not remember your own name?"

"Intermittent memory loss. Didn't you find that stuff in my file?"

"The part about the intermittent memory loss, yes. Your full name, no, which struck me rather strange. Why isn't that on file?"

" 'Fly me to the moon,' " Murdock sang, " 'and let me play among the stars…' "

_OK, I guess I'm not going to get it out of him now, thought Alia. She put her hand back on the wheel and said, "You like Sinatra too?"_

"Of course! Who doesn't like Frankie? 'Let me see what spring is like on Jupiter and Mars,' " continued the pilot.

"You've got a great voice, Murdock. 'In other words,' " Alia joined in, " 'hold my hand.' "

"You're pretty good yourself. 'In other words, baby, kiss me.' "

Suddenly Alia pecked Murdock on the cheek before he could react. "Thanks, amigo," the brunette murmured as she turned her attention back to the highway. The pilot stared wide-eyed for a moment, pondering the mercurial natures of women and realizing he was in for one hell of a ride.

****

To be continued…


	3. It Starts to Come Together

Same notes as the previous chapters. Don't own the team. All other characters sprang from my twisted imagination.

****

The golden sun sank gracefully below the darkening horizon as the convoy drove along a lonesome stretch of a secondary road about an hour outside of Phoenix. The desert sands glowed neon orange in the fading light, cut up at random intervals by the shadows of the scattered trees. Alia's black Mustang was now dusty beige from the road grit, but the occupants didn't care. Murdock and Alia were too busy admiring the sunset and enjoying one another's company.

"_¡Qué hermosa!" Alia sighed. "I love the desert out here! No cars, no high rises or smog to block the sky…just fresh, clean air."_

"Not much of a city slicker, are you?" asked Murdock.

"Actually, I'm originally from New York City, but I don't have fond memories of it," she answered.

"And you're not Greek either," the pilot deadpanned.

"You're right. I'm actually Puerto Rican. I use a lot of Spanish at times, giving myself away."

"You also roll your R's at times and your skin tone is too brown to be Greek." Murdock turned to face Alia and asked, "Why are you always pretending to be somebody else?"

"Why do you do it?" Alia countered, watching the road.

Murdock quickly changed the subject. "I'm gettin' hungry. How 'bout we get some grub?"

"Sure," the brunette replied. "Call the others on the portable phone and see if they want to stop too. There's a great little diner I passed on my way to LA up the road about a mile."

The pilot dialed the van's car phone and Hannibal answered. It had been at least three hours since the group last stopped so the colonel readily agreed to dinner. He couldn't figure out how Alia could drive five hours straight like she boasted at the last rest area. _Then again, Hannibal thought, __I'm not as young as I used to be._

Face scowled from the back seat. He hated stopping on this mission. At every rest area, Alia would shamelessly flirt with Murdock in front of him. Murdock let most of it roll off, but Face hated how their client felt the need to rub the fact that she preferred the pilot in his face. The lieutenant prided himself on the number of women he could attract like flies to honey. Seeing this woman shove his time-honed talent away like some cheesy pickup line from some amateur insulted and angered him more than his teammates knew. If Alia had been just a little bit more tactful, Face would've been more understanding. Maybe it was for the best Alia didn't like him. After all, she had the manners of a marine in wartime. _But Murdock deserves better_, he thought. _Of all people, I should know._

BA parked the van next to the Mustang outside a weather-beaten diner called Murphy's Place. The graying paint peeled off of every surface of the building and the windows on closer inspection were coated in dirt rather than made of frosted glass. The rest of the surrounding downtown looked the same as the shabby restaurant.

"Looks like this place has seen better days," Hannibal mused as he stretched beside the van.

Face climbed out of the back and groaned, "Kinda like me."

Alia hopped out of the Mustang and stretched seductively on the fender. "Don't worry, guys," she smiled as Face glared at her. "What this place lacks in looks, it makes up for in food."

"Good 'cause I'm starvin'!" Murdock exclaimed and rubbed his hands together in anticipation.

"The fool's got a point," said BA. "Let's eat."

The motley crew of five filed into the diner. The interior wasn't nearly as run down as the outside, but it still looked like it hadn't been renovated since it was built in the '50s. A few of the locals sat scattered around the single room, one of which was chatting with an attractive blonde waitress behind the counter.

_My day is starting to look up, Face smiled and straightened his tie. He took a stool two down from the middle-aged man who was talking to the waitress and flashed her a huge Templeton Peck patented grin._

The waitress returned Face's smile. "Howdy!" she greeted the five newcomers. "My name's Susan. What can I get ya folks?"

Hannibal sat next to Face and stared intently at Susan with his ice blue eyes. "Pardon me, miss, but have we met before?" the colonel asked. "You seem awfully familiar."

Susan studied Hannibal then answered, "Nope, I don't think so. I would remember if I'd seen so many handsome strangers before. We don't get many visitors from outta town here. So whaddaya all want?"

Face glanced at the menu on the counter. "How about an order of spaghetti, coffee, and what time you get off tonight, please," he answered coyly.

Susan laughed, "Whenever you're done eatin', sweetheart!" She moved onto Hannibal's order, followed by Alia, Murdock, and BA.

After the waitress walked behind to the kitchen, Face leaned on the counter. "See?" he said to Alia. "There's a real woman who finds me charming."

Alia shrugged. "And your point is?"

"What do you mean what's my point? I am a ladies' man, contrary to what you seem to believe."

"No, what I meant is that you won't know what to do with Susan once you get her alone."

Face leapt to his feet, eyes blazing. "That's it!" he yelled at a smiling Alia. The group had the undivided attention of the whole restaurant, but Face didn't notice. All he wanted was to be able to wipe that stupid grin off the brunette's smug face. "I've never hit a woman before, but you've asked for it! Get outside so we can settle this once and for all!"

"Are you challenging me to a duel, _señor?" asked Alia as Face removed his sport coat and rolled up his sleeves._

"If he isn't, we sure are," answered a husky male voice from the door. The A-Team and Alia turned to face the newcomer. The speaker was a boxlike man, dressed in a black suit, who filled the entire doorway. Two smaller, yet muscular men dressed in identical black suits flanked him. All three sported shaved heads and Ray Bans. Their whole presence screamed government employees.

"Oh, damn it to hell!" Alia muttered. "These guys are my boss's goons! Thanks for telling them where we're going, Hannibal."

Hannibal flashed the brunette his "on the jazz" grin. "Don't worry," he murmured back. "It's all part of my plan."

The leader of the trio caught sight of the brunette and smirked. "Ah, Miss Alia Benekopoulos!" he exclaimed, his words oily. "We've been looking all over for you. Your employer, Mr. Jones, is very concerned about your sudden departure. He sent us to bring you back home to Las Cruces."

"The fuck he did, Benito!" Alia shot back. "Gordon Jones sent you three to bury me out in the desert. Well, it ain't gonna happen because I got myself some hired help."

Hannibal drew himself up to his full height and lit a cigar. As he sauntered over to Benito and his lackeys, the other three members of the A-Team glanced at each other as if they were all thinking the same thing: _Hannibal's on the jazz. This isn't gonna be good._

"If you slime balls have an argument with the lady over there, you're going to have to deal with us," Hannibal said coolly as he puffed on his Cuban. "You see, we're her new friends."

"Uh, Hannibal," Face interrupted, "that's debatable. Let these G-men take Alia and do whatever they want to her."

Murdock elbowed his friend in the ribs. "Knock it off, Faceman," the pilot murmured. "You can settle your score with Alia later. Right now, you know the drill for when the colonel's on the jazz."

Face hated to admit it but Murdock was right. The lieutenant nodded in agreement and took his usual spot flanking Hannibal. Murdock and BA followed suit. Face and Murdock made sure that the big black man was between them and the government spooks.

The man Alia called Benito sneered at the A-Team as if he could flick them away with his pinky. _They're all alike_, thought Hannibal. _They always believe they're invincible until we yank the rug out from under 'em and jam it down their throats._

"Go back to your dinner, gentlemen," Benito said coolly. "This is none of your business."

Hannibal flicked ash from his cigar onto Benito's polished black shoes. "You don't seem to understand," the colonel replied as the thugs glared at him. "Scumbags like you are our business. You see, we're sort of the garbage men around here, and our job is to get rid of the trash. Now I suggest you leave before we take you out and things get ugly."

"You have a big mouth," growled Benito.

"I've been told I have that problem," Hannibal shot back.

"Let's see if you can back yourself up," Benito replied. He punched Hannibal square in the jaw before the colonel had a chance to defend himself.

Hannibal flew backwards and crashed into a table. BA quickly advanced on Benito while Face and Murdock desperately wracked their brains for a means to tackle the other two henchmen. Benito punched BA, but of course the black man just glared back and socked the g-man in the face with a gold-encrusted fist.

Murdock didn't zigzag away fast enough and got tossed by one of the goons into a booth. Face, on the other hand, climbed on a chair and jumped on the other one. It was hard to tell who got hurt worse.

The diner emptied as the brawl ensued, the locals not wanting to get caught in the crossfire. Susan returned from the kitchen to investigate the crashes, but Alia jumped over the counter and pulled the waitress down with her. The two women scooted under the counter, Susan rubbing her head from where Alia grabbed her.

"Hey, Magdalena!" Alia greeted Susan. "How's the diner business treating you?"

"Stop calling me that, amiga," the blonde scolded. "I changed my _nom de plume to Maggie Coltraine for the LA end of this job because I'm about as Hispanic as that mean looking black dude you're with."_

"My neighborhood adopted you as an honorary Puerto Rican, Mags," Alia replied.

"Whatever," Susan a.k.a. Maggie Coltraine sighed. "How's the plan going down so far?"

"More or less without a snag. These guys are as predictable as Colonel Decker said. You can expect us to arrive in Las Cruces late tomorrow. The A-Team will hit Alliance Tech within two days of our arrival. I'll hook up with Lynn Wu 'Lee' and Jill in New Mexico and give them exact details."

"So what are your plans for tonight?" asked Maggie. "I could think of all sorts of nasty things to do with those hunks! Why couldn't I get this part of the assignment?"

"Because I'm the leader, Mags," Alia replied. "As for tonight, I hope to at least suck face."

"Oh, I'd love to suck on him!" the blonde exclaimed. "Or Murdock, or even Hannibal for that matter."

"I didn't exactly mean it that way, Mags."

"I know, but think of it as a double entendre with two sexual meanings."

"You have a filthier mind than any sex-crazed man I've ever met!" the brunette exclaimed.

Maggie changed the subject. "Y'know, Jill would look cute with BA there."

Alia threw the blonde an incredulous look. "Jill's a lesbian, Mags."

"I think she just says that to play hard to get." Maggie replied defensively.

One of the A-Team hurled a thug behind the counter. He tried to sit up, but wavered a bit from the thrashing he received. Maggie grabbed an empty beer bottle out of the trash bin beside her and smashed it on the thug's forehead. The man collapsed on the floor with a loud plop, unconscious.

Alia surveyed the damage and muttered to her cohort, "Looks like we should join the party."

"Righto, old chum!" replied Maggie as she sprang out of their hiding place and over the counter to join the fray.

Alia grumbled, more to herself than her friend, "I'll get you later for that one, Mags!" and followed suit.

However, by this time the team had knocked out Benito and his other man and were dragging them to the door.

"Damn! I missed all the fun!" Alia whined.

Face looked up from pulling on one of the thug's arms. "That's what you get for cowering behind the counter," he shot back.

"I was not cowering!" the brunette retorted. "I was merely protecting your girlfriend from having to watch you get your ass kicked."

"Oh, my God!" Maggie, who was back to being Susan the waitress, moaned as she surveyed the wreckage. "What am I going to do? You guys decimated this place!" She turned to Face. "You have an ice cube's chance in hell of going out with me tonight now, bucko!"

Hannibal stepped between the blonde and the lieutenant, rubbing his purpling jaw. "Hold on a minute, miss," he interrupted. "We didn't start the fight; these men here did. We were just trying to get them out of your diner before too much damage could be done. We're sorry for the harm they caused. I'd suggest calling the police and having these men arrested for what they've done to you."

"Well, why didn't you say that in the first place?" Susan replied. "I'll go call Roy down at the sheriff's office right now. Why don't you boys hang around until he gets here?"

"No thanks," Hannibal interjected. "We'd better go find a motel before it gets too late."

"Oh, there's one about a mile down the road called The Desert Inn," said Susan. "It's a great little place with a pool, cable, and cheap rates."

Hannibal thanked the waitress for her help and BA, Murdock, and Alia followed him outside to the vehicles. Face waited for a minute and asked Susan, "So can I expect to see you tonight?"

The blonde smiled. "We'll see, handsome."

Face smiled in return and followed his friends outside. As the Mustang drove off ahead of the van, Maggie thought to herself, _Phase four of the web is now complete. Now onto Phase five._

TBC…


	4. Truth or Dare

Woo! Chapter 4! Finally done! Many thanks to Jenn for kicking my butt for the past month to get me to finish this. 11 pages is a lot to write, especially for all the angsty-mushy stuff in here. All right, Murdock and Face finally reveal secrets they've only hinted at before now. WARNINGS: language, sexual references, implicit sexual content (no, not slash! Well, that sucks out all the fun, now doesn't it?) NOTE: "With a Little Help from my Friends" lyrics by John Lennon and Paul McCartney. I don't own any piece of that or the team AND I'm not making any money off of either, much to my dismay. As always, please review. They're greatly appreciated and I'll try to read something of yours if you review this. Thanks and enjoy! :~)

****

Ten minutes after the team and their client left the ruins of Murphy's Place, they pulled into the small parking lot in front of the Desert Inn. The motel's exterior looked cleaner and more up to date than the diner down the road, but it still wasn't anywhere near the caliber of a Holiday Inn.

Face took one look at the white and green one story building and muttered, "I've seen better roach motels than this place!"

Alia's eyes flashed as if she was the one insulted. "Hey, jackass!" she snapped.  "I've lived in places worse than this, so why don't you get your head out of your ass for once and realize that the world's not going to throw itself at your feet?"

Face balled his hand into fists and stomped over to the brunette. "That's the last straw!" he yelled as he swung at Alia. Murdock darted in front of the brunette and grabbed his friend's wrist.

"Whoa, whoa, whoa!" Hannibal exclaimed, helping the pilot hold back Face. "Knock it off, and that means the both of you!" he added when he caught Alia smirking out of the corner of his eye.

"Hannibal, I say one thing about this place and she takes it personally!" growled Face. "She's been harassing me all day for no good reason."

"I'm with Faceman on this one, Hannibal," BA added. "Alia's been a pain in the ass since you brought her back from the Chinese laundry. I say she deserves a knuckle sandwich!" The sergeant ground his huge fist in his other hand threateningly.

"Hey! I've had guys hunting me down for the past week!" Alia replied defensively. "I've been under a lot of stress and I wrongly took it out on you guys, especially Face.  I'm sorry, but you saw the spooks that are after me. Speaking of which, Hannibal, why did you tell them our exact route of travel? I almost got left for the buzzards back there!"

"Pity," muttered Face.

Murdock elbowed the lieutenant again. This time Face glared back at him. "You weren't in any trouble," drawled the pilot, "not with the A-Team around."

"I'd still like to know what your grand plan is, Hannibal," Alia replied. "I hate being left in the dark when my life is on the line."

The colonel smiled with a hint of the jazz still lingering in his electric blue eyes. "It's quite simple really," he began. "I told them where we were headed so that your boss, Jones, would send his goons to intercept us on the way. This way, we pick 'em off in small groups and leave 'em behind for the local law enforcement so they stay out of our hair for the rest of the trip to Las Cruces. By the time we get to Alliance Tech, Jones' men will be spread thin, thus lessening the protection on the plant and making it easier for us to break in and get the information we need to put Jones and his pals behind bars for a few decades.

"That also means that we have to keep alert tonight in case Jones' men escape or more come in their place. Face, we need three rooms together; the two on the ends have to be doubles, but the middle one doesn't. BA and I will bunk together on one end, and you, Face, will bunk with Murdock on the other. Alia, you'll take the room in the middle so we'll have you surrounded. We'll also take shifts on guard duty tonight. There's nothing wrong with being overly cautious. Face, you take first watch. Murdock, you take over by two. When you get tired, I'll take over."

"Sounds like a plan to me, Colonel," Murdock replied.

Face flexed his hands. "Finally," he sighed, "I get to use my true talent!"

As the lieutenant marched off to the motel's office, BA grumbled, "When are we gonna eat, Hannibal? I'm starvin'!"

"I know, BA," the colonel replied, "but we've got to lay low in case the sheriff's department decides to come and question us."

"We passed a grocery store within walking distance," Alia piped up. "I could go walk over there and pick up some stuff for sandwiches  and drinks."

"You're not going alone," ordered Hannibal. "Jones's men could grab you."

"OK, who wants to go for a walk with me?" Alia asked the three men.

Murdock leaped to her side and linked an arm through hers. "Don't fret, my lady!" the pilot exclaimed in an old English accent. "I shall protect thee from the vagabonds and highwaymen that lurk about these areas!"

As Murdock and Alia skipped off down the road on their mission, BA turned to his commanding officer. "I don't like her, Hannibal. There's something not right about this."

Hannibal pulled a cigar out of his coat and bit off the end. "I don't know, BA," he replied as he lit the cigar. "Murdock's taken a real shine to Alia and he's a good judge of character. I just hope that she doesn't do something to hurt him."

"If she does," BA growled, punching his own hand for emphasis, "I'll make sure she pays!"

"Don't worry," the colonel reassured the sergeant. "We'll all look out for Murdock, just like always."

****

Later that night after the team and Alia settled into their rooms, the five of them sat around BA and Hannibal's room discussing the plans for the next day and finishing up their sandwiches.

"All right," the colonel announced, "it's 2300 hours and we're getting a wake-up call at 0600 tomorrow. Time to hit the hay. Face, you're up for guard duty."

Alia bid everyone good night and the lieutenant grumbled as Murdock, the brunette, and he left for their respective rooms. 

When Face and Murdock entered their room, the pilot took off his prized leather jacket and hung it on the back of a chair with care. He flopped on his bed, kicked off his shoes, and pulled his baseball cap over his eyes. Face quickly changed out of his suit into a pair of jeans and a crisp shirt, and grabbed his M-16 out of his duffel.

"Have fun on guard detail, Faceman," the pilot called after his friend as he left.

"Yeah, right!" the lieutenant grumbled.

Murdock slid his cap back for a moment. "Think of it this way, Face. Maybe your Susan will swing by and keep you company."

Face smiled at his friend who purred and clicked his tongue as the lieutenant shut the door behind him.

_Now for the boring part, Face thought as he slung the rifle over his shoulder and hiked off to find a good vantage point to observe the motel and the road out front. He found a good patch of scrub brush to camouflage himself in next to the front parking lot and hunkered down for a few quiet hours._

The desert amazed Face at night. With the full moon bathing the surrounding sand and scrub in silvery light, he could see farther and better than with a flashlight. Periodically a pair of headlights cut through the dark peace, blinding Face momentarily. The lit sign of the Desert Inn flickered for a while, and then shut off permanently. The lieutenant doubted that anyone would be desperate enough, besides the team of course, to spend the night here anyway. The peaceful chirping of crickets and occasional scurrying of a lizard were the only sounds besides his own breath and heartbeat.

_Nothing like the jungles of 'Nam at night, Face thought. __That's when everything including your own mind would turn on you. Just thinking about that place sent shivers up his spine, even though it had been almost fifteen years._

To shake off the ghosts of the past, Face began counting the stars. The difference between the stars in LA and here was amazing. Due to the smog in the city, he could count all of the dots of light on his fingers.

"Looking for the mother ship?" asked a low female voice.

Face's heart leaped into his throat as he swung his M-16 to bear on the intruder.

"Whoa there, Tex!" Alia exclaimed, throwing her hands up in surrender.

"Alia!" Face groaned and pointed the gun at the ground. "What the hell are you doing out here sneaking up on me?"

The brunette tried unsuccessfully to look innocent. "Who me?" she asked. "I thought you were supposed to learn how to pay attention to people approaching your position in the army. This doesn't give me much confidence in your abilities to protect me."

"I was paying attention!" Face replied defensively as he stood up from his hiding spot and stomped towards the van and the Mustang in the back parking lot. _Trying to find a scorpion to stick in your bed, he thought._

Alia followed the lieutenant, not wanting to let him off easy. "You were watching the stars! Are you expecting Jones to have his men parachute in on us?"

Face turned on heel toward Alia who almost ran into him from the sudden stop. "Leave me the hell alone!" he growled.

The brunette kept her face unemotional as she hopped up on the Mustang's trunk. "No," she replied simply. "I can't sleep so I'm going to make sure you're actually doing your job. Twelve thou doesn't seem to get me much in the way of results."

"What the hell is your problem?" snapped Face. "I don't say this often, but you've been a total bitch since we met this morning!"

"Men like you made me this way," replied Alia, contempt dripping from every word. "You lie about everything! Whenever some poor Hispanic girl tries to make it out of the slums, there's some white prick telling her that he'll help her become somebody when all he really wants is to get into her pants. Men like you knocked up my best friends and abandoned them to fend for themselves and their babies. A hotshot soldier just like you even raped my mother when she was a teenager in Puerto Rico. She got pregnant with me and her family disowned her. Only her brother stood by her and sent her to New York to try to make it in this great land of freedom and democracy! What a big fucking lie. It's all hypocrisy! The only ones who have a shot at having a halfway decent life are fucking white men like you!"

"You think I've had an easy life?" Face practically shouted. "I grew up in an orphanage!"

"Whoopty frigging do! You had a roof over your head, three square meals a day, and a good education. I lived in a tiny tenement building with forty or fifty other people despite the fact that the place should've been condemned. Rice was our staple food; we were lucky if we got week old vegetables or fruit! The only school nearby was an hour's walk through the roughest neighborhood so most of us learned from the streets. I was in a gang by the time I was eleven, and not something like the Pink Ladies in _Grease. I didn't want to stand by and watch the guys have all the power while the only two things I could do were work as a cashier at the 7-Eleven or become a cheap whore for the tourists. I learned how to handle a gun well by my thirteenth birthday and became one of the best shooters for drive-bys._

"You may have gone off to Vietnam in your late teens, but I grew up in a fucking war zone."

After long, awkward pause, Face asked, "So how did you make it from New York to New Mexico?"

Alia chuckled derisively. "Let's just say I got myself indebted to a sugar daddy of sorts. He paid for my education while I did…odd jobs for him. Nothing sexual at all, thank God! I hated myself enough as it was. As soon as I got through school, I ditched him, changed my name to Benekopoulos, and got the job at Alliance.

"Enough about me. What about you? I didn't find much in the dossier the army keeps on you."

"I don't feel like talking about it," Face replied tersely.

"How else do you think we're going to come to an understanding if I don't know what molded you into the man you are?" asked the brunette. "Fair's fair, Face."

Face sighed. "All right. I'm an orphan, like I said. I showed up on the steps of a Catholic orphanage when I was five. I never knew my father and I don't remember much of my mother. The orphanage put me through school until I joined the US Army in Vietnam. Happy?"

Alia snorted. "Hardly. That's basically what the army has on file, besides your flash-bang career in Special Forces. I told you everything. No one outside of my old neighborhood knows anything I just told you. Somehow I think you should be coughing up a little more info than that. Such as, how did your parents die?"

"This isn't some childish game of truth or dare, Alia," Face replied gravely. "I don't feel much like sharing right now."

"Fine with me, amigo. I'll just be lying on my car's trunk watching the stars until either I fall asleep or you feel like talking. Although, I'm battling with severe insomnia, so I can wait all night." Alia laid on her back on the Mustang, her long hair flowing over the fender like a dark chocolate waterfall. Face watched her, the M-16 cradled in his arms. No matter how hard he tried to figure out this woman, the worse he did. At least she had opened up to him about her past…_but how am I supposed to know if she's telling me the truth?_

"Since you don't feel like talking," Alia interrupted Face's thoughts, "I guess I will…again. I never knew my father either. Never have, never will, never wanted to. How can anyone expect me to track him down and forgive him for what he did? He was some arrogant lieutenant or something fresh out of West Point on some sort of training mission in San Juan before he got sent off to Korea. I wish he died in a prison camp, the asshole!"

"I wouldn't wish that on my worst enemy," Face mumbled, deadly serious. "You have no idea what it's like in a POW camp."

"I've heard first-hand stories of the ones in Vietnam from guys like you, and believe me, my father deserved it! He raped my mother at gunpoint, leaving her completely shattered for the rest of her life. She died in a hellhole of an apartment in the ghettos of New York of shame and a broken heart when I was fourteen years old. My delinquent behavior didn't help any, I'm sure."

"Did anything…_good ever happen to you?"_

"Yeah. You."

Face's eyes widened. How could she possibly think that the past twelve hours had been pleasant? He and Alia fought like cats and dogs almost since the moment they met. Maybe her life was a hell of a lot more horrible than she was letting on.

"I-I mean the A-Team," Alia stuttered. "To which you belong."

Face couldn't help but smile. _She let herself slip, he thought. __I knew no woman alive could resist the charm of Templeton Peck! "Are you saying you like me?" the lieutenant teased._

"Hell no!" Alia exclaimed and sat bolt upright on the car's trunk. "You're a lying con man!"

"And I could say the same thing about you, Alia Teagan-Bene…whatever," the lieutenant grinned.

"Hey! I explained that!" the brunette retorted. "However, you're the one that's changed your name half a dozen times in the past decade or two, _Alvin. What is it with you and children's characters?"_

"What do you mean?" he asked, confused.

"Ever hear of 'Alvin and the Chipmunks' or Templeton the rat in _Charlotte's Web that would always be scrounging around the local landfill? Hey, that fits you to a 'T'!"_

"Do you ever stop?" Face moaned.

Alia leaned close to the lieutenant and smiled coyly. "Never."

Face could tell by her tone of voice and body language that the brunette was flirting with him now, rather than insulting him. He could smell her as she slid closer. It surprised him that her scent turned him on. It wasn't the usual flowery perfume that most of the women he dated wore; instead it smelled more like lavender soap and shampoo. Somehow the aroma seemed to make Alia more real and sincere to the lieutenant. _Should I? he thought._

_No, I can't. She's playing me. I can't do anything with a girl Murdock's got his eye on. That's just plain wrong._

"Alia, although I appreciate the attention, I can't flirt with you," Face said flatly. "Murdock's my friend and he got to you first."

Alia smiled, this time a genuinely happy, shining white grin. "Good answer, Face,"  she replied. "It's good to see that you guys are as close-knit as your reputation makes you out to be. Sometimes I forget that I only have two settings: total bitch and flirt. I apologize for annoying you all day. Do you want to try to be friends for the rest of the mission?"

The lieutenant returned the smile and shook Alia's hand. "I would love to. But be careful with Murdock's feelings. He's a great guy—a little out there at times, but he's good friend—and the three of us watch out for him."

"I know," the brunette replied. "I would hate to get the three of you after me, especially BA.

"Murdock's so sweet! It's hard to believe he's been in the VA mental ward for a decade. How did he get in there anyway?"

Face shifted his weight. "That's not for me to tell."

"You're so secretive!" Alia exclaimed. "I can't figure you guys out. I spill my guts to you, but that might just be because I find you somewhat attractive, and for some strange reason, honest when it counts. Is everything for team members only? Do you not want people to get close to you? It always helps to have friends in high and low places, y'know."

 _Do I trust Alia enough to tell her anything more about me? Face thought. __Why shouldn't I? I mean, how could it hurt? I can get some stuff off my chest. Besides, her story is strangely similar to my own. Maybe it is true that like repels like. That would explain today's continuous fighting._

"You really want to know about me?" Face surrendered.

"Only if you want to tell me," Alia replied.

_Here goes nothing, Face thought. He sighed, then said, "I don't remember much before I got dumped on the steps of the orphanage. After all, I was five at the time. My mother tried to raise me by herself since my father either abandoned her or died before I was born, but she couldn't handle the responsibility. She didn't have anywhere else to turn, so she left me to be raised by the Catholic Church. All I remember about my mother is that she was blonde and always very sad. I tried to make her happy, but I just seemed to make matters worse. I heard she died a couple of years later in a car crash…or maybe that was a lie I created and I told it so often that I now believe it._

"Anyway, life in the orphanage wasn't exactly a piece of cake. Some of the older kids picked on me, but I soon found that I could talk myself out of most trouble by flashing the nuns a smile or by making up convincing stories. They said I was a born con man.

"I did pretty well in the different church-run schools I got sent to, even though I didn't really have any sort of legitimate career in mind. The only thing that held my interest besides football was scamming my friends out of anything they had. It was so easy to lie and I hardly ever felt guilty afterwards. But I guess I paid for it by watching all of my friends get adopted by caring families while I remained in the orphanage. It…_hurt to be left behind. I thought something was wrong with me, so I decided to use my conning ability to climb my way to the top of the social ladder, starting with changing my name to something more appealing than Alvin._

"I felt great in high school. I was well liked by everyone—well, almost everyone—and I thought I found the love of my life. Leslie was everything I wanted and needed in a woman, but then she disappeared off the face of the earth just after I gave her my Saint Christopher's medal as a sort of pre-engagement gift. She was _the one for me, but I guess she didn't feel the same way about me. I couldn't handle it so I pulled a few stunts, faked a few documents, and signed up for Special Forces in 'Nam.  I would've done anything to get away from that orphanage. I didn't find out until recently that Leslie ran off and joined a convent in Mexico."_

"So the two most important women in your life abandoned you," Alia said pointedly. "And after that happened, you figured that every other woman would ditch you sooner or later, so now you have a new flame each week. You don't get attached and you're the one that leaves them in the dust."

Face shot the brunette a quizzical look. "What are you, an amateur psychiatrist?" he asked.

"No," replied Alia, "I have the exact same problem with men. Like they say, it takes one to know one." She leaned over and pecked Face on the cheek. "Thanks for sharing; I know it's hard to do sometimes. Now we're on the same page. It's almost two, y'know. I think I'll turn in and you should too."

The brunette slid off the trunk and strolled off to her room and Face followed. Outside their doors Alia paused a moment and asked, "What's with us Catholics wandering astray? We seem to be poster children for everything wrong with the church."

"I doubt that," replied Face. "We may have started life off on the wrong foot, but now I think we're headed at least on a parallel to the correct path."

"Do you still believe in God?" asked the brunette. "I found it incredibly hard to keep my faith after Mamá died. Sometimes I can't even pass a church without a tinge of pain. She died so slowly and painfully from a viral infection that would've been curable except we had no access to medical treatment. What benevolent god would allow something like that to happen?"

"Of course I still believe, but yes, it's been difficult at times. Especially those months trapped inside the Cong POW camp. Every day I would thank Him for being alive and having another chance at getting back home to the states, and for putting me in contact with Hannibal, BA, and Murdock. The way I figure it, we're all in charge of our own destinies, but sometimes He's there to help us out."

Alia smiled weakly. "Thanks, Face, for everything. I don't know how I can repay you, or even show you how much talking to you helped me."

"Just be halfway pleasant like you are now for the rest of the mission, OK?" Face replied.

The two bid each other good night and went into their separate rooms. When the lieutenant closed his door behind him he thought, _Maybe this trip isn't so bad after all._

"Murdock," Face said as he nudged his sleeping friend. "It's 0200 hours. Time to rise and shine for guard detail."

Murdock yawned, "You just got off guard duty and you're happy? What happened? Did Susan come by to warm you up?"

"No," the lieutenant replied, his smile evident in his voice, "I had a nice chat with our friend, Alia."

The pilot froze. _No, Face wouldn't do that to me, he thought. __But still…"You didn't sleep with her, did you?" he asked suspiciously._

Face was taken aback. "Of course not, Murdock!" he exclaimed. "She's yours! I've pulled some low ones before, but I would never do something like that to you. We're friends to the end."

Murdock got up, pulled on his shoes, and put on his jacket. "I know that, Faceman," he replied. "I was just makin' sure." The pilot took Face's M-16 and ambled out the door, humming some opera tune under his breath.

As Face got ready for bed he thought, _I hope Alia is deserving of Murdock._

****

Alia paced madly in the darkness of her room. _Face trusts me now, she thought, __but BA never will. That doesn't matter much though. As long as I keep Face and Murdock on my side, Hannibal will believe me too._

_I'm not sure if I should go through with the next step of my plan. At least I didn't have to sleep with Face as I originally planned. It's better this way. It would've backfired horribly if I did. I can't believe I told him my true history! We have so much in common though; it worked better than some crazy lie. But…I need to keep Murdock on a leash. He and Hannibal are the keys to the unit; they're the ingenuity of the team. Control them, control the unit._

_I feel like I'm using him though! Murdock is so gentle, and kind, and warm, not to mention funny…everything I've ever wanted in a man._

_Stop it! What happens, happens. You've got a job to do!_

With that, Alia changed into her matching red silk nightgown and bathrobe and marched out of her room to find Murdock.

As soon as she closed her door,  a cool breeze kicked up a dust devil in the desert plain beyond the back parking lot. The brunette pulled her robe tighter around her body in a vain attempt to keep out the cold. She didn't care much about the temperature anyway; she taught herself to adapt, to ignore irritations, and to focus on her goals.

Alia explored the perimeter trying to track Murdock. However, the pilot was much more careful about concealing his presence than Face. The wind didn't help the brunette in her search by smoothing out any indentations in the sand.

As Alia passed a clump of bushes, she heard a soft click and felt the cold metal muzzle of a gun press into her spine.

"What brings you out here, fair maiden?" asked a male voice in an English accent. "There are dangerous men about."

"Murdock, that better be you!" Alia exclaimed once her heart rate started to return to normal. She turned to come face-to-face with the pilot as he uncocked his M-16.

"_¡Ay Dios mio!" continued the brunette. "You practically gave me a heart attack! I don't need to worry about someone getting past you tonight."_

"Thanks," Murdock replied. "So why're you out here?"

"Can't sleep. Benito's visit shook me up pretty good. I thought that a short walk would clear my head," said Alia.

The pilot looked the brunette over incredulously. "A walk at 2:30 in the morning, by yourself, dressed in only your nightgown? Maybe the guys are right; you're crazy!"

"Why do you think I get along so much better with you than with the others?" Alia countered.

"Speaking of which, I heard you an' Faceman had a little chat," replied Murdock, a hint of bitterness in his voice. "Did you kiss an' make up?"

"Murdock, we didn't kiss!" the brunette exclaimed. "We settled our differences and came to an understanding. I promised him to be on my best behavior for the remainder of the mission and he can finally punch my lights out if I don't keep my word. Nothing happened!"

Murdock smiled. "I was just makin' sure your story checked with Face's."

Alia crossed her arms across her chest and threw the pilot a lopsided grin. "Still don't trust me completely, do you?"

"'What would you think if I sang out of tune?'" sang Murdock, avoiding the question. "'Would you stand up and walk out on me?'"

Alia learned quickly that whenever she found a touchy subject or asked a question the pilot didn't want to answer, he would either change the subject to something completely off the wall or sing. She decided to play along to see if she could get anywhere. "'Lend me your ears and I'll sing you a song, and I'll try not to sing out of key,'" the brunette picked up the tune.

"'Oh, I get by with a little help from my friends,'" the pilot continued.

"The A-Team helped you through your personal hell, didn't they?" Alia cut in, shattering the upbeat atmosphere. "That's how you ended up in the VA, isn't it? What happened in Vietnam that scarred you so bad?"

Murdock's mouth hung open as he froze, the next lyrics gone from his lips. The brunette knew she hit upon the tip of a nerve. "Yeah, the guys were there with me in 'Nam," the pilot replied, all his normal zaniness gone. "We all helped each other out during those years."

"How did you end up in the mental ward of the VA hospital?" Alia persisted.

"It's complicated."

"I'm sure it is. Most problems that serious are like that. I'll be more than happy to listen to anything you want to say. I'm not going anywhere; are you?"

Murdock locked eyes with Alia. "You asked me earlier about my real name. Do you really wanna know why I go by H.M.?" he asked gravely.

The brunette grasped the pilot's hand in hers. "Only if you want to tell me."

Murdock took a deep breath. "I was named after my father, Harold Matthew, when I was born. He left my mother and me before my first birthday. He told her some junk that being a parent was too much work. So, my mother took back Murdock, her maiden name, and moved us in with her parents in a little town outside of Dallas. My mother didn't take the situation too well and committed suicide when I was five. I was the one who found her body in the bathroom. She overdosed on painkillers. I tried to block out the memory of my mother, eventually resulting in my intermittent memory loss. After I learned every detail from my grandparents who raised me after Mom died, I couldn't stand to be called by my father's name. They never wanted to be reminded of the cause of their daughter's death either, so my grandparents called me H.M. or just plain Murdock. Dr. Richter thinks that it's one of the many reasons why I have a hard time living in what everyone calls reality. Frankly, I don't see what's so great about it. And believe me, I tried it."

He cast his eyes to the ground, trying to keep his composure. Alia wasn't fooled and embraced the pilot.

"Y'know," Murdock mumbled, sniffling, "you're the first person I've told in a long time."

Alia looked deeply into his chocolate eyes with her hazel ones and whispered, "I'm glad you can confide in me. No one should suffer alone." She kissed him on the cheek and held the pilot tighter. "Especially not someone as wonderful and gifted as you. Actually, I think it's better you go by Murdock. You don't look like a Harold or a Harry. You look like a Murdock."

"Thanks, I guess," the pilot replied.

"I know how you feel about losing your mother," the brunette added. "Mine died when I was fourteen, just when we were starting to understand each other. She was younger than I am now."

"She was a teenager when she had you?" questioned Murdock.

"Yeah," Alia answered. "She was raped and I was the product of the crime."

"You lived in the slums of the Big Apple, didn't you?" the pilot asked.

"I grew up there with my mother and hated it," replied the brunette. "I take it you pieced together the stuff I said about being from New York and the comment about how I've lived in places much worse than this motel."

"It's not too hard t' figure it out."

"Especially for someone with a genius IQ like you."

"I'm not a genius; I'm crazy! Get it straight."

"They say that there's a fine line between genius and insanity. It all depends on the eye of the beholder, and to me, you're more on the genius side."

"'What do I do when my love is away?'" Murdock continued singing the Beatles tune, skipping over the rest of the chorus.

"'Does it worry you to be alone?'" Alia whispered the next line in the pilot's ear.

"Everybody worries about being alone," replied Murdock, swaying slightly to the music in his head. "We all have our demons that come to get us when we're on our own."

"What demons come after you, Murdock? You're mother's suicide can't be the only thing."

"No, it's not. I was ostracized at school for being a brainiac, so I picked up the zany act to try an' fit in better. With my smarts I ended up workin' for the CIA for several years before I enlisted in the army. That place, the CIA, messed me up real good. I couldn't figure out what was right or wrong—they had no ethics. Nothing was clear-cut, just gray area. Some of the stuff that I saw down disgusted me. I wanted no part of it. Some 'missions' were so horrible that I chose to forget them. I blocked the memories, sealed them off in a far corner of my brain."

"Is that where you learned to speak and read so many different languages?" Alia asked.

"From what I _want remember, yes," Murdock replied. "Russian, Vietnamese, Spanish…One day I had a __gonzo headache, an' so I taught myself how to read and speak Chinese. My so-called genius at work._

"The first chance I got, I got outta the CIA an' into the army. Everything with the army is clear-cut; there aren't massive gray areas. You know what to do, when to do it, how to do it, an' why all up front. And I got to do what I love most: flying. I could fly any contraption that had wings or a propeller that the army had in operation. I got the name Howlin' Mad partly because of my initials, but mainly because I would take any flyin' mission, regardless of the risks. At times I was truly suicidal…when my demons would come after me. I still made it back to camp, hailed as a hero or ridiculed as a head case. But one time I didn't make it back, at least when I was supposed to. By then I was flyin' Hannibal, Face, an' sorta BA on their ops. We got shot down by Charlie and tossed in a Cong prison camp for the better part of a year. It seemed like an eternity. That—that was _worse than hell. Hell doesn't even __begin to describe it."_

Alia squeezed Murdock reassuringly. "You don't have to talk about it if you don't want to," she murmured. "Some of my guy friends from my youth gang years went off to Vietnam to get themselves outta the gutter. Some of them ended up in POW camps and lived to tell the tale. When they came home, a couple of them shared the horrors of those places with me. I know what you're trying to say."

"'How do I feel by the end of the day?'" sang Murdock to relieve some of the building tension.

"'Are you sad because you're on your own?'" Alia completed the lyrics.

"'No, I get by with a little help from my friends,'" the pilot sang with conviction. "I honestly don't know how I could survive without the team. They keep me grounded."

Alia chuckled mildly. "They don't seem to be doing a good job of that, but I wouldn't have you any other way." The brunette looked up into Murdock's big puppy dog brown eyes and smiled. She gently held the pilot's head in her hands and kissed him passionately.

_How 'bout that? Murdock thought as he kissed Alia back. __I finally got the girl for once! I hope it could be more than just a one-night stand. She's funny, sensitive when she wants to be, an' knows where I'm comin' from. On top of that, she's beautiful! How'd I get this lucky?_

"'Do you need anybody?'" Alia whispered when they pulled away from each other. "'Could it be anybody?'"

"'I want somebody to love,'" the pilot quoted and kissed Alia. When the couple came up for air the second time, Murdock brushed a hand against the brunette's cheek. "Holy moly, you're freezin'!" he exclaimed.

Alia winked and smiled seductively. "You want to warm me up, handsome?"

Murdock felt the brunette's icy fingers reach up under his shirt and dance across his back. Tendrils of pleasure shot up the pilot's spine. "Why don't I get Hannibal to relieve me on guard detail an' then we can go to my place?" he said, kissing Alia's neck every two words.

"Face is sleeping in your place," Alia replied as she continued making out with Murdock. "We don't want to wake him. You go wake up Hannibal while I go back to my room and then you duck in after you've gotten Hannibal up."

"Good plan," the pilot winked.

"I'll miss you!" Alia called seductively after Murdock as he trotted back to the motel. The brunette followed behind and ducked into her room as the pilot rapped at Hannibal and BA's door.

Hannibal groggily answered the door. "0400 hours already," he muttered.

"Yes, sir!" Murdock replied, trying to hide his exceptionally good mood. "Nothing out of the ordinary yet, Hannibal. I'm gonna go turn in now. See ya in the mornin'!"

The colonel took Murdock's M-16 and closed the door to go grab his jacket before heading out. The pilot silently stalked over to Alia's door and ducked into the darkness inside.

"I've been waiting for you," Alia's rich voice greeted Murdock from the shadows on the bed.

Murdock quickly undressed and crawled into the brunette's sinewy arms to heal some of the old scabs that had been picked raw again in the past two intense hours. He hoped that he'd finally found the one woman that could fill the hole in his heart, complete his soul. What the pilot didn't realize as he caressed Alia's body was that the brunette was looking for the same fulfillment for herself in him.

****

To be continued… (I bet that really irks you, Jenn! :~) )


	5. The Morning After

Ok, this is more of a filler than anything else and I apologize for it. The end of this is really sappy (in my mind crappy), but the next few chapters are going to be a lot longer and much more pivotal plot wise. I just wanted to get the team on the road again. So, please review. It doesn't take long and it helps me see if I should keep going with this or not. Thank you and on with the show! :~)

****

When the hot red sun rose above the sandy horizon, Alia and Murdock lay in her bed, entwined in each other's arms. Neither one slept the rest of the night. They made love, sharing and healing each other's wounds, at least temporarily. As far as the couple was concerned, the world didn't exist outside of the motel room.

Alia gazed deep into the pilot's sparkling brown eyes, not wanting to break contact for fear this wonderful dream would shatter around her. She sighed, momentarily happy with the world.

Murdock shifted and Alia grabbed him in panic. "Don't leave me!" she pleaded.

"I wasn't plannin' on it," the pilot replied, confused by the brunette's sudden alarm. "My arm's fallin' asleep; that's all. What's wrong?"

"Nothing," Alia lied. 

_I can't believe myself, she thought. __I'm forgetting the cardinal rule of any mission: no getting emotionally involved with the mark. But this is different! We're so much alike in history; I can't help it. If only things were different, if only…_

_Stop thinking like that! You're betraying your__ team, the only team that matters. Don't forget that you have to contact Lynn Wu and Jill in Las Cruces to set the next part of the plan in place._

Murdock smiled as if he knew her secret. "I can tell you're lying. What's botherin' you?"

Alia sighed, "I'm just afraid that you think we moved too fast; that I took advantage of you tonight. Do you regret what we did?" _How 'bout that? the brunette thought. __I'm feeling guilty! Somehow it feels good to feel guilt again._

The pilot kissed the brunette long and hard. "Does that answer your question?" he asked once they pulled away, gasping for breath.

_Screw the mission! Alia thought. __I've never been able to be myself around a man before, and I'm not going to give this up now._

The brunette kissed Murdock back even more passionately, no longer acting or lying. "I love you!" she whispered in his ear as she began to make love to him anew.

In the next room, Face dazedly dragged himself out of bed and pulled on a pair of jeans to answer a knock at his door. He opened it to come face-to-face with one of the more unpleasant aspects of any mission: Hannibal in an energetic mood at six in the morning after guard duty.

"Good morning, Face!" The colonel smiled, knowing it would piss the lieutenant off. "What a great day! C'mon and get dressed, guys. We've got a lot of ground to cover today."

For a moment Face couldn't remember who else Hannibal was referring to besides himself. "Murdock?" the lieutenant called over his shoulder. "You awake?"

"That's strange," muttered Hannibal. "Murdock's always up before you."

Face turned around to see Murdock's bed empty and unchanged since the pilot left on guard duty four hours before.

"Face, did Murdock come back from guard duty last night?" asked Hannibal, concern evident in his voice.

"I didn't hear him come in," answered Face. "He woke you up when his shift was over, right?"

"Yeah, but I thought he came back here. Where is he?"

"You don't think someone grabbed him, do you, Hannibal?"

"I don't know, Face. It's possible, but I think we would've gotten a ransom note or something. Go check on Alia just the same."

Face nodded and jogged over to Alia's door. He knocked, but got no answer.

When she heard the knock at her door, Alia glanced over at the clock on the nightstand. "Shit!" she cursed. "That's our six o'clock wake up call!"

"Ignore 'em, sweetheart. They can wait another five to ten minutes," murmured Murdock. He kissed her to silence any protest.

Face was getting more nervous with each passing second. "Alia!" he called and rapped his knuckle on the door harder. "Are you there? Answer me!"

Hannibal came up behind the lieutenant. "No answer?" the colonel asked.

"No!" Face replied, exasperated. "I'm worried, Hannibal. What if Jones' men came back here and grabbed both Alia and Murdock?" asked Face, panic edging his words. "Do you have a key to Alia's room?"

"No, but now I'm wishing you scammed an extra for us last night," replied the colonel. "Think we should break down the door?"

"I'll pick the lock instead. That way we won't have to pay for damages." Face whipped his ever-handy lock picking kit and went to work on the door.

"Murdock," Alia murmured in the pilot's ear. "I think they're picking the lock."

"You're hearin' things," the pilot replied, trying to get the brunette's attention back to the activity at hand. "It's probably just the bed groanin' from the use this mornin'. C'mon, you should be the one groanin', or am I not satisfyin' you?"

"Don't talk dirty! It sounds wrong coming from you," admonished the brunette. "That's my job." She kissed Murdock hard and ignored the scratching at the door.

Outside, Face twisted his picks once more. His efforts were answered by a pop, signaling the lock was sprung. "Ah ha! It's all in the wrists," the lieutenant smiled at Hannibal.

"All right, now down to business," said Hannibal. He pulled out his 9mm and Face followed suit with his Colt .45. The two men nodded to each other, and the colonel flung the door open.

Murdock and Alia jumped, grabbing at sheets to cover themselves, when the door swung back and hit the wall. It was hard to tell who was more embarrassed about the intrusion, the lovers or the intruders.

"Well…Murdock…" Face said, breaking the tension in the room. "I see you're more than all right."

"Don't you guys believe in privacy?" Alia exclaimed.

"We were worried Jones' men might have abducted one or the both of you in the night," Hannibal explained, trying in vain to look as calm as usual.

"Thanks for the concern, guys, but next time, don't panic so easily," replied Murdock.

"We'll leave you two alone," the lieutenant said as he and the colonel backed out of the room. "Just don't forget we have to make it to Las Cruces today." Face winked at the pilot as he closed the door behind him and Hannibal.

Outside the motel room the colonel muttered, "Well, that was embarrassing."

"Tell me about it," replied Face. The colonel shot his lieutenant a sidelong glance. "What?" Face asked, confusedly.

"You're not known to willingly give up a girl to Murdock," answered Hannibal. "What's up, Face?"

The lieutenant sighed, "Why am I always made out to be the bad guy? Alia and I had a little chat last night and--"

"You didn't sleep with her too, did you?" interrupted Hannibal.

"No!" exclaimed Face. "Of course not! What kind of friend sleeps with his buddy's girl? Contrary to popular opinion, I do have some morals, thank you very much."

The colonel threw up his hands in mock surrender. "I just wanted to check! I didn't want anybody getting close to Alia, but now I see it's too late for that."

"Why not?" the lieutenant asked. "Why don't you trust Alia?"

Hannibal looked Face straight in the eye. "Who are you and what have you done with Face?"

Face laughed, "What, Hannibal?"

"Yesterday you wanted nothing more than to bury Alia out in the middle of the desert. What's with the sudden change in heart?"

"Well, she started harassing me on guard detail about how I wasn't doing a good job, and we had a pretty good screaming match for awhile…" Face related all the details of the previous night's conversation with Alia while Hannibal listened attentively.

"…So you see, Hannibal, Alia was just acting out of her natural defense instincts," concluded the lieutenant.

"I'm still not liking this," the colonel said, shaking his head. "She's lied to us already. What makes this story legit? Like I told BA yesterday: Alia's too much like that blonde we picked up when those renegade mercenaries in South America abducted Murdock's Dr. Richter. They're both quick to change masks and are extremely careful about not letting anyone get a glimpse of their real face underneath."

"But Alia lied only about her last name once," Face replied. "No one in their right mind would come up with such a detailed background for a rouse; it would be impossible to recall every lie you told if you had to keep up the same act over any length of time. Now that blonde just memorized facts and came up with simple stories on the fly. Plus she lied at least ten times straight to our faces. I can count Alia's lies on one hand."

"The ones we know about, yes," conceded Hannibal.

"So why did you take Alia's offer if you don't trust her?" asked Face.

"Whenever we seem to think that there isn't a case, there turns out to be one. Though it may not be close to the original problem, there's always a case. Besides, I find it handy to keep my enemies close. That way I can keep an eye on 'em."

****

"Oh my God!" Alia exclaimed as she slumped against Murdock. "I don't know if I should laugh or die of embarrassment after Face and Hannibal catching us in the act!"

"Yeah, that completely got me out of the mood," the pilot grumbled as he swung his long legs over the side of the bed.

"Where do you think you're going, handsome?" Alia purred while she traced her finger along Murdock's back.

"We gotta drive to get to your place before dark," replied the pilot, "an' we can't mess around all day, though I would love to fool around with you some more." He reached over his shoulder, caught Alia by the wrist, and pulled her arm back over his shoulder. He felt her soft body pressed against his back and her warm breath on his cheek. He could still faintly smell the brunette's lavender perfume mixed in with the salty scent of sweat. He wanted to stay in this moment forever, but he knew the team had a job to do. Murdock turned and kissed Alia once more before getting off the bed to get dressed.

Alia flopped onto her stomach and propped her head on her hands. "Y'know, we could keep fooling around and get ready to hit the road at the same time," she smiled.

Murdock turned in the middle of collecting his scattered clothes and gave the brunette a confused look.

"You want a shower?" Alia asked as she rose from the bed and beckoned the pilot into the bathroom.

Murdock grinned and followed the brunette into the shower. "How can I say no to you?"

****

Half an hour later, BA, Hannibal, and Face finished packing up the van and waited for Murdock and Alia to grace them with their presence. BA paced back and forth impatiently, his hundreds of gold chains clinking with his movements. "What's takin' 'em so long?" the black man growled. "We're supposed to be gone by now!"

"Let's just say that the two of them really hit it off last night," replied Face. "Hannibal and I had the unfortunate luck of barging in on them this morning."

BA stared at Face in utter disbelief. "Murdock an' _Alia? That crazy fool's dumber than he looks!"_

"BA, did you see the legs on her?" Face exclaimed. "I don't blame Murdock one bit for shacking up with Alia."

"Hey! I thought you were on my side, Faceman!" growled BA. "We were gonna make her pay for playin' us for suckas." The black man advanced menacingly toward the lieutenant who squirmed in fear of what the bigger man could do to him.

Lucky for Face, he was saved from figuring out how to avoid BA's wrath when Murdock and Alia finally appeared. The brunette sported a light blue t-shirt, khaki shorts, and sneakers, and had her damp hair pulled back in a loose bun. The only differences between the pilot's appearance from the day before were his wet hair, his jacket and flannel shirt in one arm, and Alia in the other. Both were grinning from ear to ear as they joined the rest of the team. 

"Lovely day, isn't it?" Alia asked cheerfully. "Wonderful day for a drive, and we've got a long one ahead of us. Shall we hit the road, gentlemen?"

"It's about time!" BA grumbled and stalked off towards the driver's side of his van.

Murdock and Alia headed off towards the Mustang as Hannibal pulled Face aside. "Face, do me a favor," the colonel muttered.

"Sure, Hannibal," replied the lieutenant. "What do you want me to do?"

"Go with Murdock and Alia in the Mustang. When you get a chance, find out what Alia told Murdock last night and see if it checks out with the story she gave you. If it does, then I'd feel a lot better having Alia around."

Face nodded in agreement. Hannibal clapped his lieutenant on the back and climbed into shotgun in the van. Face turned and walked over to the Mustang. "Mind if I join you two?" he asked Murdock and Alia.

"I don't mind at all," Alia replied.

"C'mon! Hop in the back, Faceman!" Murdock added from shotgun.

"I don't want to be a third wheel, y'know," said Face.

"We all need to seek out new experiences," responded the brunette. "You can jump over the side if you're careful of the paint and the upholstery."

The lieutenant almost vaulted over the side of the car, but then he took a closer look at Alia's face. "Did you get any sleep last night?" he asked. "You look terrible!"

"Wow, thanks for the complement," muttered the brunette. "How could I sleep with a sexy thing like Murdock loving me up? So I haven't had any sleep in the past 48 hours; I've gone for longer stints without it bothering me."

"You shouldn't be driving while exhausted. That's as dangerous as driving drunk!" Face scolded.

"Fine! If you don't want me to drive, then you do," retorted Alia. "I'll just sleep in the back seat if you think you can handle stick shift."

Face shot the brunette a sour smile as the two switched places. "I think I know how to drive standard, thank you very much."

"You don't understand," Alia replied as she settled in the back. "This was my first car. I fell in love with Mustangs after I saw _Bullitt in the movie theater in 1968, so I saved up all my money and bought this baby on my eighteenth birthday. I've worked on it since I got it used in '69 and now it's in better shape than when it first came off the Ford assembly line."_

Face started the Mustang and pulled out onto the road, the van following close behind. "You and BA should talk, Alia," the lieutenant called over the wind. "You both have an unnatural interest in cars. Alia?" He glanced in the rearview mirror to see the brunette stretched across the back seat sound asleep. He smiled and turned his attention back up front. "Wow, you sure tired her out last night, Murdock!"

"Hey, she was no slouch, let me tell ya," the pilot replied. "That was probably the best night of my life. Jealous that I got the lovin' last night and not you?"

"Nah," answered Face, "Alia's not my type."

"When you say your type, you mean blonde with a perfect body and no brain, right?"

Face shot Murdock an annoyed look. "Ha, ha, very funny."

The pilot dangled his arm over the side of the car and watched the passing scrub for few minutes before turning back to the lieutenant. "So what changed your mind about Alia last night?" asked Murdock. "That must've been one hell of a talk you two had for you to reconsider letting BA use her as a punching bag."

"I don't think I've had a conversation like that in years," Face began. "Alia started to bitch me out again while I was on watch, and I asked her why she was such a jerk all the time. Turns out that her life used to be a living hell and the tough girl act is her way of protecting herself."

"I can't imagine what it's like to grow up in the slums of New York City," said Murdock. "I never really thought about how lucky I was to have my grandparents around to raise me."

"And I always felt that there couldn't be any place worse than the orphanage growing up. Can you imagine finding out that you were the result of a rape?"

"I imagine it would be worse for a girl just because she'll probably fear the same thing that happened to her mother will happen to her."

Murdock fidgeted with the side mirror for a moment. "Let's put some music on," he stated. "This is getting too heavy."

"I'm with ya," Face replied,  "but the only stations we'll pick up out here are country western. Look in the glove box and see if Alia's got any good tapes."

"No Blondie, Face, unless you want her to wake up an' break your hand for good," the pilot smiled as he opened the compartment. About half a dozen tapes spilled out into his lap and the floor, so Murdock read off the artists as he picked them up. "Let's see here…We got David Bowie, Queen, Alice Cooper, AC/DC--"

"Sounds like Alia's a rocker to me," muttered Face.

Murdock ignored his friend and kept reading. "Here's the good stuff: Van Halen, the Beatles, and the Rolling Stones. What's your pick?"

"What Beatles album?"

"Best one: Sergeant Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band."

"Put that one in."

Murdock complied and shortly Paul McCartney's voice sang over the pulsing drumbeat of the title track. The pilot opened his mouth to sing, but Face interrupted. "Murdock, I'd like to hear the Beatles sing it for once, all right?"

"Fine," the pilot grumbled and pouted in his seat This was going to be a long car ride if he wasn't going to be able to do anything fun.

To be continued…


	6. What's the Truth?

Author's notes: Ok, I reread this whole thing in its entirety and found a whole lot of mistakes. Your brain gets fried trying to remember every little detail and making sure that everything's kosher with the show itself (and it doesn't help with someone harassing you every day, JENN—j/k). So, I fixed each chapter and re-uploaded all of them. Only major difference is that the setting is in June rather than August…I think. Oh! And Alia is 35 rather than 30. No biggie.

I don't even know why I'm adding this comment, but I am. Alia is NOT an extension of me in any shape, form, or manner. We're close to total opposites, except we both happen to be female and like Murdock. Basically, this isn't a Mary Sue if that's what some of you (What am I talking about? No one reads this!) are thinking. 

Most importantly, I've been working very hard on this piece in the little spare time I have, and I only have one regular reviewer (Thanks so much, Jenn!). All I want to know is if I'm improving my writing, I'm doing about the same, or I'm killing any chance I have of ever becoming a professional writer. It takes only about a minute at most to review, and I have the open offer that if you're an author and take the time to tell me how I'm doing, I'll do the same for you.

****

Alia didn't wake up and take over driving until the convoy stopped for lunch around noon about an hour away from Las Cruces. Face reassured Hannibal at one of the rest stops that Alia had told both him and Murdock the same story. This seemed to placate the colonel; the lieutenant's and the pilot's arguments on the brunette's behalf completely convinced him. Hannibal trusted his men's opinions, especially if they correlated as closely as Face and Murdock's did. The colonel figured that BA was a grouch around new people anyway and the two of them would get along great if the black man would listen to Alia's story. Besides, Hannibal appreciated the brunette's smart-ass comments.

Finally around two in the afternoon, Alia pulled into the driveway of a one-story ranch house in a middle class neighborhood. All the houses in the development were separated by four and a half foot fences from the identical adobe structures with red tile roofs next door: the standard look for homes in the southwest.

"Welcome to my humble abode, guys!" Alia exclaimed as she cut the Mustang's engine. "It isn't nearly as plush as that apartment you have in LA, Face, but hopefully it'll meet your minimum standards. It's the most I can afford on my salary."

Still embarrassed from his outburst from the night before, Face changed the subject. "So you're a project designer at Alliance?"

"Yup, the first woman on the team," replied the brunette as she got out of the car. "I know about everything labeled top secret inside the plant. I guess Gordon Jones figured that I wouldn't do anything that could jeopardize my job and just look the other way when he started selling military secrets to the opposition."

"Hopefully Jones will exercise that same lack of judgment on the A-Team as he did with you," Hannibal added as he climbed out of the van. "It'll make our job a lot easier. Speaking of which, we should get settled and find out exactly what we're up against. First, we should check the house and yard for anybody lying in wait for Alia. Face, Murdock, you go around back; BA and I'll check the house."

Face and Murdock nodded, grabbed M16s from the lock box in the back of the van, and split up to circle around the house. BA got a pistol out of the back and followed Hannibal inside while Alia started unloading the cars.

Inside everything looked intact; the place was immaculate. The colonel and sergeant entered facing the kitchen and dining area. Down to the left was a short hallway leading to what looked like two bedrooms and to the right the living room which was half hidden by a wall. Hannibal indicated for BA to take the bedrooms while he took the rest of the house.

It turned out there was also a bathroom and closet down at BA's end of the house which were clear. The sergeant searched every inch of what could only be the guest bedroom, mostly to see if Alia kept any sort of incriminating evidence on herself. BA couldn't shake the feeling that the brunette hid something from the A-Team when she arrived at the Chinese laundry the previous morning. Finally satisfied, he moved on to the master bedroom. Everything seemed in order until he checked the closet.

As soon as he opened the closet door, someone jumped out and BA drew his gun. However the gun proved useless as the person fell into a limp heap at his feet. The sergeant knelt next to the person who turned out to be a dark haired woman. He turned her over and his breath caught in his throat when he saw the woman's face.

It was Alia.

BA leaned in for a closer inspection. The woman wasn't Alia, but the resemblance was eerie. She had the same hair, the same general facial features, but her skin tone was definitely indicative of Greek heritage. The woman's eyes and mouth were wide with horror and bruises encircled her throat—someone obviously strangled her to death recently. BA rummaged through her pockets to see if he could find any ID on her and came up with a wallet. Inside he found a drivers license for Alia Benekopoulos with the dead woman's picture on it.

_I knew that woman was lyin'! BA thought angrily. __What've we gotten ourselves into? He threw down the wallet and yelled, "Hannibal! C'mere! You need to see this!" When no one answered, the sergeant cursed and jogged out to find his commanding officer._

When BA found everyone outside hauling in equipment, he marched over to the brunette and pinned her against the side of the van. She struggled in vain to get free while Murdock and Face tried to pull the sergeant off of her.

"BA, what's gotten into you?" Hannibal demanded.

"She ain't Alia!" growled BA.

"Of course I am!" the brunette gasped around BA's fist crushing her windpipe. She reached into her pocket and handed him her wallet. "Look at the drivers license and my Alliance Tech ID."

Sure enough the two IDs had the brunette's picture next to the name Alia Benekopoulos. BA threw the wallet on the ground and snarled, "I saw the real Alia Benekopoulos in your bedroom closet. She's been strangled. You ain't Alia!"

"BA, what are you talking about?" asked Hannibal. "What body in the closet? And let go of our client!"

The sergeant dropped the brunette and turned to his commanding officer. Murdock caught her as she slumped against the side of the van and gasped for breath. "It's just like I said," answered BA. "I found the body of the real Alia in the bedroom closet. I'll show you!" He jogged back into the house, followed by the rest of the group.

Outside the bedroom BA said to Hannibal, "She's right there on the floor. I knew that she," he pointed at the brunette and glared, "was lyin' about who she was!"

Hannibal looked inside the room. "BA, there's nothing there. No body, nothing. What's gotten into you?"

BA's face fell. "What?" He ran into the room and found that Hannibal was right; there was no body on the floor or in the closet. "She was right here when I left to get you, I swear!" He turned and glared at the brunette. "Where'd you hide the body, you?" The sergeant advanced to choke the brunette again, but Murdock planted himself in front of her.

"BA, knock it off!" the pilot exclaimed, deadly serious. "Just because you don't like Alia that doesn't give you the excuse to make up stories about her. She was only out of everyone's sight for two minutes. There's no way that she could've snuck in, strangled someone, jumped back out when you came in, and then hid the body after you left!"

"Murdock's right," added Face. "You owe Alia one hell of an apology."

"I know what I saw and I ain't apologizing to no imposter!" BA growled and stomped off to unload his van.

Hannibal watched the sergeant's retreating back and asked his other men, "Any idea why BA's acting so weird? I've never seen him like this."

"Beats me, Hannibal," Face answered. "Maybe Murdock's blood from that transfusion a few years ago is finally affecting his brain."

Murdock wrapped an arm around Alia's waist as the four went to go help unload. "Don't pay attention to BA," he whispered in the brunette's ear. "He's in a perpetual bad mood."

"It's kinda hard to ignore him after he tried to strangle me," Alia muttered back.

Outside the brunette caught two of her neighbors, a short Chinese woman and a taller black woman, leaning on the fence watching the four strange men hauling equipment into her house. "That reminds me," she said to Murdock, "I should check in with Jill and Lynn, my next door neighbors. I asked them to keep an eye on the place while I was gone. I'll help bring stuff in as soon as I'm done."

"All right, but don't take too long," Murdock replied and pecked Alia on the cheek before he jogged over to help Face with a large duffel bag.

Alia walked over to the fence smiling. "Qué pasa, Jill, Lynn?" she asked the two women at the fence. "How's your end of the plan going down? I see you made it back from LA before me, Lynn. Did dear Colonel Decker believe that you were 'Mr. Lee's' daughter?"

"He fell for it hook, line, and sinker," answered Lynn. Her rounded chin barely cleared the fence as she smiled, a mischievous glint in her almond shaped brown eyes. "He might come this way just because he's smart enough to figure out that you hired the A-Team. I wouldn't worry too much about him."

"Good," Alia answered. "How about you, Jill?"

"Once Alliance Tech found out you skipped town, they left the place alone," replied the tall, slim black woman. Jill had a similar "don't mess with me" presence as BA, but not nearly as flamboyant. She sported a black t-shirt, a heavy silver cross, large silver hoop earrings, and a short Afro. "I see your part of the operation is going more than well, but I thought that there were only three members of the A-Team."

"Officially yes," Alia answered. "Turns out that Murdock is indeed part of the team."

"He the one that kissed you?" asked Jill. Alia nodded. "You sleep with him too?" Again Alia nodded. "Damn, girl!" Jill exclaimed. "You're getting to be like Maggie and her long string of men!"

"It was just Murdock!" replied Alia defensively. "If Maggie wasn't my best friend I'd call her a slut. Unlike her, I can count all the men I've banged on one hand, all right?"

"Whoa, don't take it so personally!" Lynn interjected. "We're just kidding around. Is that Hannibal there with the white hair? He's quite handsome if I do say so myself! Do you know if he likes Chinese?"

"I dunno, Lynn," sighed Alia, "why don't you go over and ask him?"

"What's with the guy I assume is BA?" asked Jill. "He might actually be attractive if he'd smile."

"I thought you were gay, Jill," said Alia.

"Nah, bi," Jill answered. "Way I see it, I got lucky. Lot better selection that way."

"Though this is fun and all, I have something important," Alia interrupted. "BA claims to have seen the body of the real Alia Benekopoulos. Would either of you know anything about this? She was supposed to be disposed of already! The whole operation was almost blown because somebody screwed up!"

"Maggie was in charge of that," answered Lynn. "You know how much she's into the killing parts of the different jobs."

"But isn't she still on her way here?" Alia asked.

"No, she got in around eleven this morning," answered Jill. "She's sacked out in our house since she drove through the night to get here before you and the Fantastic Four. We figure she took care of Miss Benekopoulos before she crashed."

Alia muttered, "I'm going to have to have a talk with that girl. We can't have a screw up like that again; we're so close to getting out of this mess."

"Yeah, I can't wait until the boss has what he wants," replied Lynn. "I've been waiting for fifteen years to get out of this crap."

"You know that there's no guarantee that he's going to let us go after this, don't you?" asked Alia. "I mean he's lied to us before about this sort of thing. We could always disappear into four different corners of the country or the globe like I keep saying we should. Each of us could even take one of the A-Team with us since he'll be looking for them for the same reason."

"Alia," Jill said warningly, "don't start with the plan B. You know it won't work."

"How do you know?" demanded Alia. "We never tried!"

"Girl, the boss has us trapped," sighed Jill. "There's no way out except to give him what he wants. If this is about your new lover, you'd better think twice about what you're doing before you jeopardize our freedom. It doesn't matter what happens to those guys; what matters is that we get our lives back. Don't you dare go and fuck this up for the rest of us!"

Jill walked off towards her house as Lynn locked eyes with Alia. "Jill's right," the Chinese woman stated. "You're not the only one involved in this." She turned and followed Jill into the house, leaving Alia alone with her thoughts.

_I'm starting to feel uneasy about this job, thought the brunette as she walked back over to the driveway. The A-Team was almost finished hauling equipment into the house so she just took her suitcases out of the Mustang's trunk and into the house._

Murdock caught Alia's despondent look as he passed her and did an about face to follow her. "Hey, what's wrong, sweetheart?" he asked. "Purple wobblies come to get you?"

Alia smiled, "No, the neighbors just said that some creeps were lurking around here earlier."

"We're here now," replied the pilot. "There's nothin' to worry about."

_I wouldn't be so sure about that, thought Alia._

"All right, where do you want us to set up?" asked Hannibal.

"Well, there's a trundle bed in the guest room that two of you can use and the sofa in the living room folds out into a double bed," answered the brunette. "You can set up any equipment you need in the living room or the guest room."

"Ok, then where does everyone want to bunk while we're here?" Hannibal questioned the others.

"Couch is mine!" answered BA. "I wanna be as far away from that woman as possible."

"I'll stay with Alia if that's all right," said Murdock as he wrapped his arms around her waist from behind.

"That's perfectly fine with me," Alia replied. "I guess that leaves you, Hannibal and Face, with full run of the guest room."

"Ok, now down to serious business," Hannibal said. "We need everything you know about the Alliance Tech laboratory. Could you draw a layout of the compound for starters?"

"I can do even better," answered the brunette. "I swiped a current scaled floor plan from records before I left for LA."

Hannibal smiled and took out a cigar. "Then let's get cracking!"

****

The depth of Alia's knowledge of every aspect of Alliance Tech's compound amazed Hannibal. She kept detailed notes of guard movements, security cameras, key codes, and all the possible routes in and out of the building itself. If he didn't know better, the colonel would've thought that the brunette had some sort of military ops training. _This oughta make things a hell of a lot easier, he thought. By dinnertime it looked as though everything would be set to go the following evening. It seemed strange that the A-Team wasn't madly carrying out a plan at the last possible second before the bad guys and/or the army showed up, but hopefully this way the opposition wouldn't figure out what was going on until after the team hit them and left._

Alia whipped up a dinner of Spanish rice and enchiladas while the A-Team drilled her for information. Everyone, save BA who grumbled something about the food being laced with poison, agreed that the brunette was an excellent cook. The rest of the evening passed relatively smooth with the sergeant sulking in the corner and the other four playing cards. Face tried to cheat but the others knew his "strategy" right off the bat.

"I think you can help me out, Face," Alia said as she reached over to the lieutenant and pulled a card from his sleeve. "Gin!" The brunette laid her hand down and smiled slyly.

Hannibal smiled around a cigar. "If you weren't going to do that," he said to Alia, "I was."

The lieutenant threw down his cards in disgust. "What is this, pick on Face night?" he whined.

"No, it's just fun and easy to harass you," replied the brunette. "Besides, you've been cheating all night; you deserve some form of punishment."

"All right, guys," interrupted the colonel. "It's getting late and we need to get a lot done before sunset tomorrow. BA, you've got first watch tonight."

"Are you sure, Hannibal? I might just let whoever comes lookin' for 'Alia' come in an' get her," BA growled.

The colonel barked, "Sergeant, you have first watch and that's an order, understand?" Hannibal hated pulling rank unless it was absolutely necessary. BA teetered on outright insubordination on this mission and the colonel couldn't figure out why. "I don't know what your problem is but you've got a job to do and it better be done right. You come and get either Face or me when you get tired, all right? Dismissed!"

BA glared, snatched up an M16, and stomped off outside, slamming the door behind him.

"Boy am I scared that I got on his bad side," Alia muttered. "Forget about Jones' men coming to get me, I'm more afraid that BA's gonna do me in long before they find me!"

"Don't fret, my lady," Murdock replied in an English accent, "I shall protect thee from the angry mud sucker and any other vagabonds that dare trespass."

Alia chuckled and leaned against the pilot who in turn wrapped an arm around her. Face and Hannibal couldn't help but notice the transformation in both Alia and Murdock since the beginning of the mission. The brunette changed from an angry bitch to a genuinely pleasant woman while the pilot acted the sanest since he was admitted to the VA hospital.

"All right, we've got a busy day tomorrow," said Hannibal as he rose from his chair at the table. "Time to hit the hay."

The others followed suit and headed off to their respective rooms. Outside the bedrooms Face pulled Murdock aside. "Now don't keep us up all night, all right?" the lieutenant joked.

"This coming from the man who could sleep through a shelling in 'Nam," retorted the pilot. "Somehow I doubt you heard us at all last night." He winked and closed the master bedroom door.

Face smiled, shook his head, and closed the door behind him.

Next door, Alia's face creased with lines of worry as she undressed for bed. "Hey, what's wrong, sweetheart?" asked Murdock as he tossed his jacket and baseball cap on a chair facing the sliding glass doors at the far end of the room. "You've been lookin' depressed all night."

"Nothing gets past you, does it?" the brunette smiled feebly as she took off her shirt.

"An' it's not BA or the goons comin' after you that's buggin' you," the pilot added, kicking off his shoes.

"Am I that easy to read?" asked Alia in an attempt to change the subject. One look from Murdock told her that she wasn't going to weasel out of talking. The brunette sighed in surrender. "All right, I couldn't help thinking whether you and I are just a casual fling or something more serious. I don't want to get too attached if once the mission's over you go back to LA while I stay here and we never see each other again."

"I think it's a little late for this to be a one night stand, don't you?" replied the pilot. "Why, do you only want to keep things light?"

"No, no, I agree that we're in a lot deeper than a one nighter," interjected the brunette as she took out her bun and brushed her hair, "it's just that—how can we keep up a long distance relationship?"

"Who said we have one of those?"

"Well, I've got my job here in Las Cruces and you're a patient at the VA in LA; we won't exactly be neighbors."

"I'm getting released soon though, I can feel it."

Alia paused in the middle of combing her hair, then tossed the brush down in exasperation. "Murdock, you can't be serious. You've been in there for at least ten years! What makes you so sure that your psychiatrist is going to release you now?"

The pilot replied patiently, "Have I acted crazy or seen things that aren't really there in the past day and a half you've known me?"

"No, not really," the brunette agreed.

"See? I haven't been able to be sane for this long in a great while. Usually it takes a lot out of me, but now I feel fine acting normal. Being with you helped me so much, Alia; I'm not about to let you go now."

"But you wouldn't leave the A-Team for me. They're your friends—I can't selfishly keep you to myself. Besides, you guys do a lot of good for people."

"Then come with me back to LA! Face and Hannibal like you, and I'm sure once BA stops pouting he'll come around. It's been awhile since we had a woman on the team and you'd come in handy. It'll be a hell of a lot more exciting than working as a weapons designer, I can tell ya that."

"I don't know, Murdock…" Alia looked at the floor.

The pilot walked over to the brunette and grasped her by the shoulders. She looked up into his gentle brown eyes with her sad hazel ones. "You don't have to make up your mind right now," Murdock said softly. "I just want you to know that I love you and I want to be with you always."

Alia's eyes welled up and she embraced the pilot tightly. "How did I get so lucky as to find you, Murdock?" she sniffed.

"I was thinking the same thing about you," replied the pilot as he held the brunette closer and gently rocked side to side.

"I've made up my mind," Alia said confidently. "As soon as the mission's over, I'm coming back to LA with you. I love you too much to ever say goodbye." She tilted her head up and kissed Murdock. Shortly the pilot felt the brunette's hands pulling up his shirt. He pulled away just long enough to yank it over his head and turn off the lights.

****

Alia lay with her head resting on Murdock's gently rising and falling chest in the moonlit bed. She had pretended to sleep after they made love for two blissful hours; there was no way she could fall asleep with so many emotions roiling inside her. The pilot had finally drifted off and the brunette watched him sleep. He looked so peaceful she had to smile.

_You're using him, said a little voice in Alia's head. __You know damn well you can't run off together. You have a responsibility to Maggie, Lynn, and Jill—not  to the A-Team._

_¡Cállete! Alia thought in reply. __I love him and he loves me! These have been the best two days of my life; I can't give this up._

The voice refused to be silenced. _This isn't fair to either Murdock or your team. You can't run off with your lover and leave your friends out to dry. Conversely, you can't keep leading Murdock on if you're going to go through with the plan to get you and your team's freedom. In other words, you can't bake your cake and eat it too._

Alia wanted to beat her head until the voice stopped. _No! I can't make that choice! I don't have to make it; all of us, my girls and the A-Team, can just scatter to the winds. The boss will never find us and we'll all be free._

The voice laughed harshly. _Do you really think that'll work? The boss is like George Orwell's Big Brother: always watching. You can't escape him. Your only choice is to do what he says and dump Murdock as fast as possible—end of discussion!_

Alia couldn't take it anymore and rose from the bed, careful not to wake Murdock. She grabbed a nightgown out of a drawer and slipped it on before she flopped into the chair facing out the sliding glass doors. _Dios mio, I've gotten myself in deep this time, thought the brunette._

That night Alia noticed several scars from bullet wounds on Murdock's body, one a memento from the A-Team's brief mission back to Vietnam a few months before. She could only imagine how horrible that experience was for the pilot, but she knew that if this mission went according to plan, Murdock would suffer more pain than any bullet could inflict. Though the brunette normally had no qualms about luring marks into a false sense of security before taking what she needed or killing them, she couldn't go through with this. Murdock was special; Alia sensed it from the moment she first saw him walking out of the VA.

But Jill's words echoed in Alia's ears: Don't you dare go and fuck this up for the rest of us! The brunette's friend was right. How could she choose a man she met two days ago over her life-long friends?

_Why can't I ever catch a break? thought Alia as she watched the dust swirl in the wind outside. __Are you punishing me for all that stuff I did as a kid, God? I feel I've suffered enough. When are things going to get better? They can't get much worse. The brunette sighed heavily._

A soft rustling roused Alia from her thoughts. "What're you doin' up, sweetheart?" yawned Murdock. "I thought you were sleepin'."

"Couldn't—again," Alia replied.

The pilot pulled on his pants and sat on the arm of the brunette's chair. "All you do is worry!" he exclaimed. "Sex is supposed to relieve tension, not cause it. You should be acting like you're on Valium with all the sex we've had in the past two days!" Alia smiled and playfully punched Murdock in the arm. "Now that's more like it," said the pilot as he kissed the brunette's forehead.

"Tomorrow will you stay here with me when the team moves out for Alliance Tech?" Alia asked. She knew it was a stupid question and what Murdock's answer would be, but she asked it anyway.

"That's my unit," Murdock answered. "You gotta stick with your unit."

"I know, but I've got this horrible feeling that if you go tomorrow, you won't come back," said the brunette. Alia hoped she could convince the pilot to stay with her while the rest of the A-Team fell into the trap waiting for them. Afterwards the two of them could mount a rescue mission and everyone would then escape back into the Los Angeles underground. It could work, couldn't it?

Murdock smiled. "We do this sorta thing all the time, Alia; we always come back safe and sound, more or less. Besides, I wouldn't leave without you." He squeezed the brunette's hand reassuringly and she smiled weakly back.

Something darted in the shadows out in the yard, catching Alia's eye. The thing moved again and with the moon backlighting it, she realized that it was a man toting an assault rifle. "Murdock," the brunette whispered, fear edging her voice, "please tell me that's BA out there."

The pilot followed her gaze and answered, "No, there's no way that could be him—an' I don't think that's Faceman or Hannibal either. You have a gun?"

Alia nodded. "In the nightstand there's a loaded .32. With the way I live I need some sort of defense."

Murdock crept over to the nightstand and opened the drawer. As soon as he picked up the gun, Alia yelled, "Murdock, look out!" The creep lurking outside in the shadows smashed in the glass doors with the butt of his rifle, sending glass shards flying everywhere. The pilot whipped around, pistol in hand, ready for a fight. The intruder grabbed Alia's arm, but she fought viciously to keep him from dragging her away. Murdock figured the intruder wanted to bring Alia back to Jones alive and probably would only use the rifle on him.

Alia and the prowler struggled so violently that Murdock feared to use the .32; in all likelihood he would hit the brunette. Murdock tossed the gun and leaped into the fight to wrestle the rifle away from the intruder. However, the intruder anticipated it and whacked the pilot upside the head with his rifle. Alia froze as she watched Murdock fall to the ground stunned.

Suddenly the rage from all the stress from the past few days welled up inside the brunette and exploded as an unearthly shriek. Alia kicked her attacker in the balls with all her strength. When the intruder doubled over in pain, the brunette yanked away his rifle and swung it at his head with the force of a baseball batter hitting one out of the park. A loud crack echoed in Alia's ears as her attacker collapsed on the floor in a heap.

Blinded momentarily when the lights turned on, Alia shielded her eyes until she could see that Hannibal had his hand on the switch with Face beside him in the doorway and BA stood outside the broken sliding glass doors. "What the hell happened?" asked Hannibal.

"_Dios mio, Murdock!" Alia exclaimed as she dropped the rifle and knelt next to the pilot. She cradled his head in her lap and asked, "Are you all right? You seeing double or anything?"_

"Feels like a jackhammer's pounding on my brain, but other than that I think I'm all right," replied Murdock. "What happened to the guy that tried to abduct you?"

"I knocked him out with his gun," Alia answered.

Hannibal knelt next to the intruder and felt for a pulse. "You did more than just knock him out," he said. "He's dead."

"What? I didn't hit him that hard!" exclaimed the brunette.

"We heard the crack when you connected with his skull," said Face. "You pretty much bashed in his temple."

After an awkward pause Alia said nonchalantly, "Well, I guess we don't have to worry about him anymore."

BA couldn't believe what he heard. "What's wrong wi' you?" he yelled. "How can you kill someone then act as if it's nothin'? Don't you feel at all bad about what you've done? You're one heartless bitch!"

Alia helped Murdock to his feet then turned on BA, eyes blazing. "The real question, Mr. Baracus, is what the fuck is wrong with you?" the brunette screamed back. "It was self-defense! I didn't mean to do it, although I will admit I was capable of killing in cold blood. As a kid I used to fight in gang territory disputes and rumbles with both guns and knives. Like you I've killed another human being more than once, but I haven't killed anyone in a long time. Growing up like that desensitized me. Now if anyone should understand where I'm coming from, it should be you from the slums of Chicago. Also, if you'd been paying any sort of attention on guard duty, you would've seen the attacker before he broke into the house. Maybe then he'd still be alive and you would be threatening to break his face unless he spilled his guts. Get the hell out of my sight until you stop pouting and decide to act like an adult!"

BA growled menacingly and stood toe-to-toe with Alia. The two glared at each other, waiting for the other to back down. Finally Hannibal broke up the stand off by asking the sergeant if he wanted to continue standing watch or to go to sleep. BA gruffly replied that he didn't want to continue guard duties if Alia would ridicule him more and marched off toward the living room.

Once the sergeant left the room, Alia asked, "So what do we do now with Philips?"

"That's his name?" questioned Face, pointing to the body. "Sounds familiar."

"Might be," replied the brunette. "Philips was a captain or higher in Special Forces in Vietnam before he retired and got the job as head of security at Alliance Tech. When Benito called Jones about our little run-in yesterday, Jones must have sent Philips out to retrieve me. I can't believe I killed him; he was always really friendly."

"The way I see it," Hannibal interrupted, "we have two choices. We could bury Philips out back, or we could hide out somewhere nearby while Alia calls the cops and gives them the situation, conveniently leaving us out of the story. If we bury him, we risk getting spotted by the neighbors and having the body found. If we leave for a while and Alia calls the cops, she'll be brought in for questioning, but she'll be safe and we have a smaller chance of getting caught. Most importantly, we'll have less to cover up."

Murdock nodded in agreement. "Sounds good to me, Colonel."

"All right," said Hannibal as he stood up. "Face, go get BA and start packing the van. Murdock, you search this end of the house and make sure there's no trace of us while I go check the other end. Alia, wait about ten minutes before you call the cops so that we're long gone before they get here."

Everyone nodded in agreement and split up to accomplish their assigned tasks. The A-Team, experts on leaving in a hurry, was almost ready to depart ten minutes later. Hannibal gave Alia the van's phone number so that she could contact them once she was done with the police. The men finished packing the van while the brunette placed the call to the cops. Once Alia hung up the phone, the van was loaded and ready to go.

"Now you guys stay out of trouble, all right?" the brunette said by way of farewell.

"It's not our fault trouble finds us on a regular basis," retorted Hannibal. "Now we'd better scram before the cops get here."

"Don't take too long talking to the federales," Murdock smiled. "I want to get back to that bed." He kissed Alia.

The brunette returned the pilot's smile, then shooed the four men out of the house. She watched on the front steps as BA backed the van out of the driveway and drove off down a side street to wait. Alia quickly prepared her performance of a distraught woman who'd had a break-in for the police. Absentmindedly she wondered why she hadn't tried to make it on Broadway rather than getting herself caught up in the current mess as the lights of a cruiser came into view.

****

The A-Team sat quietly in the dark interior of the van in an abandoned lot a few blocks away from Alia's house waiting for her call. Normally Murdock would've sang or tried to play Twenty Questions with someone, but the pilot remained unnaturally silent.

Finally Face decided to break the silence. "So…" he began, "why so quiet, Murdock? No jokes or stories from bozo barracks?"

The pilot refocused from staring off into space. "Sorry, Faceman, what did you say?" he asked.

"You feeling all right? You haven't been your normal crazy self lately," Face answered. "What's up?"

"I was just thinking…I asked Alia to come back to LA after this mission," said Murdock. "I said she could help out the team like Amy and Tawnia used to instead of working at Alliance."

"No way, you crazy fool!" growled BA. "She ain't gonna be part of the A-Team, not as long as I'm around!"

"Cool it, BA," Hannibal replied sternly. The colonel turned his attention to his captain once he felt the sergeant calmed down a bit. "When were you going to tell us about it, Murdock?"

The pilot replied, "That's why I was lost in thought."

"How much have you thought about this?" asked Hannibal. "Are you sure you trust Alia enough for her to become part of the team?"

"Hannibal, I can't explain it; there's just something about her that just puts me at ease," answered Murdock. "I felt comfortable enough to tell her some of my deepest and darkest secrets." The pilot turned to Face. "You know what I'm talking about, doncha, Faceman?"

"Well, I did talk to Alia about my past after some prodding," admitted the lieutenant, "but what about that veterinarian? Kelly, wasn't it?"

"See?" interrupted Murdock, ignoring Face's last comment. "Even Face thinks she's trustworthy."

"That ain't sayin' much comin' from Faceman," BA retorted. "He always picks the girls who're spies for Decker!"

"Alia's not a spy!" the pilot snapped.

"Then why did she lie and hide a body in her closet?" growled the sergeant.

"You imagined that body!" Murdock yelled. "You've just made up your mind to hate Alia for no reason!"

BA had had enough. He lunged from the driver's seat and seized the pilot by the collar. The sergeant balled his other fist to punch Murdock, but Hannibal intercepted.

"Knock it off!" Hannibal bellowed. "Sergeant, release him now!" BA hesitated for a moment, then obeyed his commanding officer's orders. "What the hell has gotten into the two of you?" the colonel asked, exasperated. "BA, your behavior is uncalled for. I will admit that I didn't trust Alia at first, but she's proven herself in the past few days. I agree with Murdock's assessment: we can trust her. Now I'm not saying that she's a member of the A-Team yet. After our job here is done, we'll take Alia back to LA with us and see how well everyone works together on our next mission. If that works out, I see no reason why we shouldn't keep her around."

BA opened his mouth to protest, but the ringing of the mobile phone cut him off. Hannibal answered it and spoke briefly. "Alia's given the all clear," he said after he hung up. "Now I want no more fighting. Don't forget we've got a mission to accomplish. When we get back to Alia's place, Face, you're going to take over watch and the rest of us will go to sleep. I'll relieve you at 0400 or before if you can't stay awake, all right?"

Face, Murdock, and finally BA nodded in agreement. The sergeant started the van and the four men rode in silence back to Alia's house.

****

"Murdock," Hannibal murmured as he nudged the pilot the following morning. The colonel felt uncomfortable waking his captain while Murdock cradled Alia in his arms. He'd had to drag Face from a few girls before, but pulling the pilot from a woman was a new experience. "It's your watch."

The pilot slowly opened his eyes and blinked the sleep from them. "All right, Hannibal," he mumbled. "Just let me—umm—extract myself." The colonel nodded and crept out of the room so as not to wake Alia.

Murdock gazed lovingly at the woman sleeping so peacefully in his arms. After the team returned the night before, the two of them stayed up until sunrise talking since Alia couldn't sleep. He told the brunette that the team would give her a test mission after they were done in Las Cruces to make sure everyone could get along and complete a job. Murdock couldn't tell if Alia was glad or apprehensive about that prospect. After that they talked about anything and everything—no holds barred. The pilot couldn't think of anything about himself that he hadn't told Alia, and he felt he knew as much about the brunette. He buried his face in her long, silky hair and inhaled her scent before he gently rose from the bed to take up guard detail.

Once Murdock was no longer touching Alia, the barrage of terrible thoughts that his presence kept at bay assailed her dreams. She whimpered ever so quietly as her boss's face congealed out of the dark corners of her nightmares.

_"You disobeyed my orders," said the boss in his aggravating, condescending tone._

_"Fuck your orders!" Alia screamed in return. "Why do you want the A-Team anyway? They aren't like the other marks—no politics or money involved. They're even fading into nothingness as urban heroes."_

_The boss smiled, sending shivers up the brunette's spine. That false grin of his never failed to rattle Alia, no matter how confident she felt. "That's for me to know, and for you to never find out," answered the boss. "You should only worry about your team's freedom, if you can call yourselves a team."_

_"Will you let us go if I go through with your plan?" Alia sighed in surrender._

_"Do it and we'll see."_

_"You never give a straight answer, you snake. Why should I believe anything you say? You've done this before only to shove us off on another job as you say, 'I don't remember agreeing to let you go.'"_

_"If you don't do as I say I'll send all four files I've kept on your 'teammates' to the authorities. I'm sure they'd be interested in your involvement in certain unsolved crimes."_

_"Are you going to kill the A-Team?"_

_Again the boss leered at the brunette and laughed maniacally. Alia cringed; that could only mean one thing…_

Terrified, Alia reached out for Murdock in her sleep. When her hands grasped nothing but air, the brunette bolted upright from her nightmare. She rubbed the sleep from her eyes only to see Murdock's side of the bed unoccupied. Fearing the worst, Alia jumped out of bed, tossed on her bathrobe, and dashed into the kitchen.

Murdock, Hannibal, and Face were sitting at the kitchen table when the brunette burst into the room, her hair in a tangle and her eyes wide in terror. Alia clutched at her bathrobe to keep it from falling off of her. The three men looked up from their coffee in different degrees of surprise.

"Heya, sweetheart," Murdock greeted Alia. "I was just about to—what's the matter?"

The brunette sighed in relief, "Thank God you guys are still here!"

The pilot rose and went to Alia's side, concern in his eyes. "What's got you so spooked?" he asked gently.

"I—had a nightmare," replied the brunette. "I thought that something horrible had happened to all of you—at Alliance. And it's not the first time I've had reservations about hiring you guys to come out here. Jones is much more resourceful that I thought. I mean he sent out a guy with as much experience as you to get me! Who knows what might have happened if I hadn't--"

"What you're sayin' is that you don't want us to go bust Jones tonight," Murdock interrupted.

Alia sighed, "Yes, that's why I told the cops about his dealings when they came last night about Philips. They said they'd take care of it—we can leave, go back to LA! You don't need to bust Jones; the authorities will."

"Alia, the cops won't go and investigate on your word alone," answered Hannibal. "Jones could be destroying evidence as we speak—we have to make sure that that doesn't happen."

The brunette sighed in defeat. "I wish you would reconsider, but I can see your minds are made up. Anyway, how long have you guys been awake?"

"Few hours," Hannibal answered. "We hope you don't mind, but we got hungry and made our own breakfast."

"No, no, that's perfectly all right," Alia said. "What time is it anyway?"

Face smiled, "It's almost noon; we were thinking about making lunch."

Alia's jaw dropped. "Oh my God!" she exclaimed. "I can't believe I slept so long!"

"It was a busy night in more ways than one, after all, and you didn't fall asleep until almost five," replied Murdock.

Alia playfully punched the pilot in the arm. "Hey! I thought you fell asleep before me!"

"Nope, you drifted off in the middle of a sentence," Murdock grinned in return. "It was kinda cute actually. You were sayin' somethin' about how you loved--" Alia hit the pilot again, this time in the ribs to get him to stop. "Ow!" Murdock moaned while rubbing his side in mock pain. "If this continues to be an abusive relationship, I might just leave and you can forget about ever becoming a member of the A-Team."

Alia apologized and helped the guys find stuff for sandwiches. BA came in a while later and switched guard detail with Face. The sergeant and the brunette restrained themselves from fighting and merely glared at each other from across the room for the rest of the day.

All too soon it was time for the A-Team to head out for Alliance Technologies. Alia stood forlornly on the front steps as she watched the four men go over the plans at the last minute. Finally Hannibal said, "All right, time to hit the road. We'll be back in a few hours after we've handed Jones and his lackeys over to the cops."

_No, you won't_, thought Alia. "Please, all four of you, be careful," she pleaded.

"Don't worry, sweetheart," replied Murdock, "we've done this sorta thing before. You won't even notice we're gone."

"Somehow I doubt that," Alia smiled back. "I'm missing you already."

The pilot grinned, tilted the brunette's chin upwards, and kissed her passionately. Hannibal called from shotgun for Murdock to get in the van. The pilot muttered "I'll be back" in an imitation of Arnold Schwarzenegger before hopping into the back of the van along with Face. BA started the van and backed out onto the road while Hannibal grinned and gave a quick wave to the brunette.

As soon as the van was out of sight, Alia turned and went back into the house to call Jill, Lynn, and Maggie. _I tried to stop them, she thought, __but they didn't listen. They made their choice, so therefore I've made mine. The operation is going down as planned. There is no Alia anymore, only me._

****

To be continued…

Don't forget to leave a review! (Jenn, I know you're gonna kill me for leaving it here!)


	7. The Web Revealed

Just a few notes before getting down to business. Thank you to all of those who reviewed a couple of weeks ago just when I thought no one would ever read this besides Jenn, who's been there since the beginning (Thanks, girl! You're awesome!). And thank you, Paige, for your reviews. They couldn't have come at a better time and helped me have a good day. Ok, I think that's it, so on with the show! :~)

****

The A-Team stashed the van in a patch of trees just outside the outer fence of Alliance Technologies as the last rays of sunlight faded from the sky. The four men climbed out and circled around to the back. Hannibal passed out weapons and other gear while giving orders.

"OK, we all know the plan," the colonel addressed his troops. "Murdock and BA, you two are the first to penetrate the outer defenses to let Face and me in. Once Face, Murdock, and I get the files we need from Jones' office, we'll rendezvous in the front lobby and go back over the wall, hopefully undetected. All right, lock and load!"

Murdock, BA, and Face nodded, shouldered their gear, and fanned out into the underbrush surrounding the outer wall of the Alliance Tech facility. Face and Hannibal hid at vantage points on either side of BA and Murdock where they could watch, out of sight, the swiveling security cameras on the outer wall.

Alia told the team about a crucial ten-second gap in between the scans of two security cameras—just enough time for someone to climb to the top of the wall and unplug the cameras to allow someone else to climb over the barrier before security took notice. Murdock watched the cameras intently until the two cameras were facing away from his position. He then jumped out from his hiding spot and scurried up the two-foot thick brick façade with time to spare. The pilot slid across the top of the barricade and unplugged the cameras. With the cameras temporarily out of commission, BA clambered up the barrier after Murdock and jumped over to the opposite side. The pilot quickly plugged the cameras back in so security would think that the brief lapse in picture was a minor glitch, then dropped down next to the sergeant.

Face and Hannibal waited for the signal from BA and Murdock while the captain and the sergeant crept off toward their next obstacle.

Lucky for the A-Team, security on Sunday nights was light and one lone guard patrolled the corner of the compound from which they entered, and his buddy was on break. According to Alia, his nickname was Tex for his Austin-influenced drawl—and Tex just happened to be about the same height and build as Murdock.

BA and Murdock crouched behind some bushes and caught sight of the security guard. Tex fit Alia's description to a "T". He strolled along the perimeter of trees, completely unaware of the two intruders lying in wait for him.

Suddenly Tex's radio crackled to life. "Tango One, this is Base, come in Tango One," a gruff male voice barked.

BA and Murdock could see Tex smile as he grabbed his walkie-talkie off his belt. "Yo, Jerry!" he drawled. "We ain't in 'Nam anymore, buddy! Ya don't need code names, 'specially not somethin' that dumb. What's up?"

"Have it your way," Jerry sighed. "Routine check-in, Tex. Anything happening out there?"

"Naw," replied Tex. "Quiet, like ev'ry other Sun--" he trailed off when BA rustled some bushes to attract Tex's attention. "Hold on, Jerry," Tex said, "we might have somethin' here."

Like a moth to a flame, Tex ambled over to Murdock and BA's hiding spot to investigate. Once the guard was close enough, the pilot leaped up from the bushes, laid Tex out in one punch, and then dragged him by the ankles into the hiding spot. Murdock quickly changed into Tex's uniform while BA tied up the guard with rope from his pack.

"Tango One?" crackled the radio. "I mean, Tex! Tex, are you there? What's happening? Tex!"

Luckily Murdock had had the chance to hear Tex's peculiar drawl before he knocked the guard out. "Sorry 'bout that, Jerry," the pilot drawled in a voice identical to the unconscious Tex. "Tripped on a gopher hole. Turned out the noise I heard was just a squirrel."

"Well, it's time for your break anyway," replied Jerry. "Come in and grab some coffee. Mason will cover you."

"Roger that, Jerry. Over and out."

Murdock switched off the radio and ambled towards the front entrance to the Alliance Tech main building with BA sneaking along behind in the shadows with their gear. When the pilot reached the door, BA ducked behind a small tree nearby. Murdock adjusted his "borrowed" cap to hide most of his face from Mason and Jerry, and then strolled into the lobby. A short, blond guard—Mason, Murdock surmised—leaned against the security desk along the wall on the right. He sipped a cup of coffee while chatting with a mustached guard, Jerry, behind the desk.

Mason smiled when he caught sight of Murdock. "So how's the squirrel situation, Tex?" he joked. "Think those critters could be a threat to national security?"

Murdock grinned sheepishly back while Jerry chuckled with Mason. "Y' never know wi' squirrels," replied the pilot. He scanned the room and quickly discovered that Alia's intelligence was correct once again. One lone security camera surveyed the lobby—and it plugged into the wall right next to the coffee maker on the opposite side of the lobby from the security desk. "They're smart critters sometimes." _Unlike the idiot who designed security for this place_, Murdock added mentally.

"Yeah, I'll keep my eye out for 'em," Mason chuckled as he strolled outside to take over Tex's patrol. As soon as Mason cleared the door, BA jumped from his hiding spot, tackled him, and knocked him out. The sergeant hid the unconscious guard behind the tree and waited for Murdock's signal.

Inside, Murdock ambled over to the coffee pot. He pretended to pour himself a cup, but instead unplugged the surveillance camera.

"Hey, that's weird," Jerry muttered and tapped a monitor at the security desk. "The camera in this room blinked out."

Murdock strolled over to Jerry and leaned on the desk. "Naw, that ain't weird," the captain said, tipping his cap up so that the guard could see his face plainly. "I'm weird."

Jerry gasped, "You're not Tex! Who are you?"

BA burst through the door after seeing Murdock tip his hat—his signal. The captain smiled at Jerry and replied, "Well, y'see, I'm Chip an' this here's Dale. Now Dale's gonna forcefully apply his knuckles laterally to your cranium, disrupting your brainwaves and resulting in unconsciousness."

Jerry managed to mutter, "Aw crap," before BA punched him. Murdock took his pack back from the sergeant and grabbed some rope to tie up the guard. Meanwhile, BA located the main circuit breaker in a closet off the main hallway and went to work "fixing" the security systems.

"Jerry?" the intercom at the security desk crackled to life. "What's going on down there? Something happened to the camera in your area. Jerry!"

Murdock quickly finished binding Jerry with the rope and shoved his limp body under the desk. The pilot answered the intercom, once again imitating Tex's drawl. "Sorry 'bout that. We're havin' some technical trouble, but Jerry's workin' on it right now. We might need to reboot the system though, so if all the cameras blink off for a second, don't worry."

"Ok, thanks, Tex," the voice on the other end of the line replied before hanging up.

"Whew, that was close," muttered Murdock. He then changed out of Tex's uniform jacket and pulled on his precious leather jacket again before checking on BA's progress. "How's the 'repair work' comin'?" asked the pilot.

"Beat it, fool!" BA snapped as he fiddled with the circuit panel for the security cameras. "I'm workin'! You tell that other guard upstairs that nothin's wrong wi' security?"

"Yeah, you ugly mud sucker," Murdock muttered in return.

BA glared daggers at the pilot. "If Hannibal an' Face weren't waitin' outside, I'd pound you right here, right now," he growled. The sergeant rerouted a few more wires, then shut off the panel to buy him a few seconds to hook up the system with simple video loops; the remaining guard or two would think the cameras were still recording what was going on around the compound when in reality they would be watching old security footage.

Outside the compound, Face and Hannibal watched as the security cameras stopped swiveling. "C'mon, Face; BA and Murdock got in," the colonel said. He and the lieutenant wasted no time in scaling the outer wall and continuing into the main building.

Back in the lobby, Murdock darted off for the fourth floor to rendezvous at Jones' office with Hannibal and Face. BA tweaked his handiwork a bit more, then stood back to admire it.

"Nice work, Baracus," a decidedly feminine voice said from the doorway. BA spun around to come face to face with Alia's tall African American neighbor dressed head to toe in black. The woman trained a pistol on the sergeant and added, "Not too smart leaving your weapon a good five feet away from you. Now if you want to keep yourself intact, I suggest you listen carefully."

"Who're you?" asked BA as he raised his hands in surrender.

Jill smiled and picked up the sergeant's M16. "We'll save that for later when we meet up with our friends upstairs," she answered. "Colonel Decker's on his way here if he isn't outside the front gate already, so--"

"I knew it!" BA growled, cutting off Jill. "You, Alia, an' your other friends are workin' wi' Decker to trap us!"

The sergeant thought the woman was going to pass out laughing from lack of oxygen. "You think we're workin' for Decker?" gasped Jill. "You're dumber than you look in that crazy getup! Decker's just a pawn in this game, like you. We'll finish this later with your friends so I don't have to repeat myself. Now patch the security cameras back into the main surveillance room, but not into the recording system. We want to see what's going on, but we don't want any evidence that we were here. Get it?"

****

Up on the fourth floor, Hannibal, Face, and Murdock met up outside Jones' office after taking out the remaining guards in the third floor surveillance room. Now the three men searched through Jones' filing cabinets for any information pertaining to his black-market sales of top-secret military weapons.

After a half hour of digging through paperwork, Face moaned, "I can't find a thing on this Jones guy! He's got detailed files on everything inside this plant, but nothing on any sort of illegal activity."

"I've got nothin' as well, Colonel," agreed Murdock.

"We've searched this office top to bottom and come up empty handed," Hannibal sighed. "What the hell's going on?"

"Hang on a second, Hannibal," Face interrupted and held up a manila folder. "I might have something. It seems Jones was suspicious that one of his employees was into something illegal and was checking it out." He flipped through the papers in the folder and froze. "I don't believe it! Jones suspects--"

"Alia Benekopoulos," finished an all too familiar voice from the doorway. Hannibal, Murdock, and Face whirled around to see Alia standing there with the blonde waitress Susan on her left and her petite Chinese neighbor on her right. Like a dark version of Charlie's Angels, all three women were dressed completely in black with their hair pulled back—and trained pistols on the three members of the A-Team.

The three men stood there for several confused moments in different degrees of shock. "Alia?" Murdock finally asked, breaking the silence. "What's goin' on, sweetheart? What--"

"My name's not Alia," the brunette interrupted.

"I knew it!" exclaimed another familiar voice from behind the three women. Jill shoved an agitated BA into the office with his friends and joined her comrades. "I knew she wasn't Alia!" BA yelled again. "You guys wouldn't listen to me, but I was right!"

"Will you shut the hell up?" screamed Susan. "Nobody cares that you were right for the first time in your life!"

Hannibal studied the blonde carefully. "I recognize you now with your hair pulled back like that," he said. "You're Maggie Coltraine."

Susan a.k.a. Maggie grinned evilly, unsettling the A-Team. "Very good, Colonel Smith," she said with a malicious glint in her eyes. "I thought you were going to blow the whole thing back in Arizona. It's amazing how I can get away with barely changing my appearance and not get recognized, while you go all out and still stick out of the crowd."

"Who are you really?" asked Face.

"Which one of us?" the blonde laughed. "We all play so many parts we even confuse ourselves."

Murdock's head spun as the scene unfolded. "Alia, sweetheart, tell me what's going on," his voice threatened to crack.

"My name's not Alia!" the brunette hissed through gritted teeth. "BA didn't imagine that body back at the house. Maggie here killed the real Alia Benekopoulos just before we arrived, but failed to hide the body in time." She glared at the blonde. "She almost blew the whole operation right there. Sloppy!"

Maggie glared back, but the brunette continued. "You want to know my real name? I'm Lola Sanchez, the leader of this outfit."

"Self-appointed bitch is more like it," grumbled the blonde.

"You watch it, whore!" Lola snapped.

"So what do you—err—ladies want with us?" interrupted Hannibal.

"Oh, we're not the ones who want you," Lynn spoke up for the first time, "though I would love to get you alone, Colonel. You were perfect stooges to break in here and do all the hard work for us so we could get our hands on some of the military prototypes Alliance builds. We admit that we made it easy for you with our mole, Lola."

"It was a simple plan really," Lola picked up the thread. "As BA will testify, I happened to almost be a doppelganger for the late Miss Benekopoulos. All I had to do was lighten my hair, get some hazel contacts, and use some makeup to give myself a more olive complexion. We kidnapped Alia and held her hostage in her own home while I took her place here at Alliance for two weeks."

"I was already in place as the neighbor Jill by then," the black woman added. "My real name is Jazzana LaSalle, but you can call me Jazz. The phrase 'on the jazz' has a totally different meaning for us," she smiled.

Lynn rolled her eyes. "Anyway, 'Maggie' and I flew to LA to track you guys down."

"I played the part of the prospective client while Lola and Jazz made certain that Alliance didn't know a switch had been made," added the blonde. "I'm Robyn Thompson, by the way. Once I was sure I had a line on the A-Team and Alliance believed Lola was Alia, or at least we thought so, Lola drove here and met up with you, pretending to be Miss Benekopoulos."

"We had to use some sources, including your pal Colonel Decker, to find you guys," Lynn said. "I called him before Lola contacted 'Mr. Lee' at the laundry. When Hannibal and she had to leave before the MPs arrived, I threw Decker off their trail by posing as Lynn Wu Lee, Mr. Lee's fictional daughter. I then wrapped up the loose ends in LA and flew back to Las Cruces. My real name is Xiang Li."

"That's when I had to move fast," Robyn cut in again. "I booked it to Arizona and posed as Susan the waitress, then drove through the night to get here and dispose of Miss Benekopoulos before you arrived. But you guys had to arrive early, so I had to drag her body over to Jazz and Xiang's place while BA ran out to get help. Strangling someone is a great stress reliever."

"And that brings us to here," finished Lola. "Unfortunately something unexpected cropped up. It seems that your Colonel Decker is much smarter than reported. He somehow figured out that I was posing as Alia and followed us here. Right now he's--"

"Smith!" boomed a gravelly voice outside the building. "I know you're in there! Come out with your hands up before we break down this gate!"

"Outside the gate with a megaphone," Jazz finished Lola's sentence. "Crap!"

Decker yelled, "And I know who you are, Miss Sanchez! You and your own team can join Smith and his team in surrendering."

"Double crap!" cursed Lola. She walked up to Hannibal and prodded his collarbone with her gun. "I know you've got one of those canister launchers in your pack. I need it to distract Decker out there."

The colonel tossed his pack at Lola's feet. "We treated you like one of our own," he said angrily as the brunette rummaged through the bag and found what she wanted, "and this is how you repay us?"

"It's not her fault we found your weak link," retorted Xiang.

"Is that all I am to you?" demanded Murdock, his voice shaking in fury. "A weak link? I loved you! I poured my heart out to you, and all along you were just lying to me to get what you really wanted!" The pilot lunged for Lola, who was loading the launcher. Face and Hannibal grabbed him just as the other three women cocked their pistols.

Lola finished with the canister launcher and said, deadly serious, "Don't make them use those on you. Those aren't water guns." The brunette walked to a window facing the front gate, opened it, and fired the launcher at Decker and his men waiting outside. The A-Team heard someone yell, "Tear gas!" above the confusion now raging outside. Lola fired another canister for good measure, then shut the window again.

"May I ask what you're going to do with us now?" asked Hannibal.

Jazz smiled. "We're gonna hold you boys here for our boss. He would very much like to meet you."

"And who is this boss of yours?" Face questioned.

"You'll just have to wait and see for yourselves," answered Robyn.

All four women aimed at a different member of the A-Team and fired. All four men looked down at their chests when they weren't blown off their feet and found tranquilizer darts stuck in their flesh before they collapsed in an unconscious heap.

"Why can't this ever be simple?" moaned Robyn as she stuffed her gun into the back of her belt.

"Stop bitching," Lola sighed. "Everybody pick an A-Team member and drag him to his own cell.

Xiang jumped up and down excitedly. "I call Hannibal!" she squealed. "We're stripping them, right?"

"Yes," Lola replied, rolling her eyes, "they're notorious for using everyday items to escape. The only way we can be sure that they can't get out is if we strip them—to their shorts only, Xiang."

"Someone's gonna have to help me with BA," said Jazz. "Think I'm gonna get rid of all his jewelry first so I might have half a chance of moving him."

Robyn stood over Face and Murdock. "I don't know what you see in that one, Lola," she said pointing to the pilot. "Did you really sleep with him instead of Face like Jazz and Xiang said?"

"Why the fuck do you care?" snapped the brunette.

"Ooo, aren't we a little bitch today," Robyn retorted. She studied Lola as the brunette stared at Murdock's unconscious form. "You actually have feelings for that weirdo! Whatever happened to your rule about not getting involved with the marks?"

"Shut the fuck up!" screamed Lola. "You've made your point already! You like Face for his looks, so go take him to his cell. Have fun stripping him." The brunette hooked her arms under Murdock's armpits and dragged him from the room, leaving the other three women in stunned silence.

****

Lola managed to drag Murdock down the hall to a small padded room very much like those in mental institutions. _Murdock's been in places like this for so much of his life_, she thought, _I hope he doesn't do anything horrible when he wakes up._ The brunette undressed the pilot with care, folding each article of clothing neatly and putting them into a pile. After she finished, she traced her finger along Murdock's jaw line and lips before moving onto the next step. Lola extracted a roll of duct tape and several zip ties from a small bag attached to her belt and proceeded to bind the pilot hand and foot. First, she rolled him onto his stomach and used a zip tie to hold his hands behind his back, then covered the tie with a thick layer of duct tape. Next, she tightened another two ties around the pilot's ankles and again covered them in a layer of tape. Lastly, Lola rolled Murdock over and placed a piece of tape over his eyes and then his mouth. Before she put on the gag, the brunette kissed the pilot one last time.

Lola picked up Murdock's clothes, checked the hidden camera to make sure it was working, and then left the cell, locking it securely behind her.

_I hope to God I made the right choice_, thought the brunette. She inhaled the smell of Murdock's leather jacket as she walked down the stairs to meet up with the rest of her team in the surveillance room.

****

To be concluded…


	8. Daughter of Darkness

I have just a few notes before beginning this last chapter. I know Murdock hasn't exactly been in character for most of this fic, but that's mainly because Dwight Schultz is so amazingly talented that I can't possibly come close to his comic genius. Murdock might still be slightly out of his usual character, but I seriously believe he would react this way if he was in a situation like this. The scene in the second episode of season five where Frankie (another character I'm not fond of) meets up with Murdock outside the courtroom where the rest of the A-Team is being court-martialed and Frankie makes the mistake of referring to them as "our guys" comes to mind. Murdock promptly drags Frankie out of sight of the crowd into an alcove, slams him against the wall, and tells him, "They're _my_ guys. Not our guys, _my_ guys!" Obviously Murdock can be violent if provoked, especially if someone's dumb enough to cross the line and do something to who and what he holds dear. Besides, I doubt that anyone would take something like this lying down.

Also, the chapter title comes from a Tom Jones song of the same name. I felt that the lyrics described Murdock's most likely sentiments about Lola right about now, just without cursing her outright. The title aptly describes Lola as well. You'll see what I mean… :~)

****

Murdock fought for consciousness even though he felt like BA had pounded his ring-encrusted fists into the pilot's skull and sternum. As he became aware of his surroundings, he realized that the side of his face was pressed into a padded floor.

_It was all a bad dream_, Murdock sighed. _I was just dreaming or hallucinating in the good ol' VA. Musta been from the doc changin' my meds again…or I went through one helluva violent cycle an' he had to lock me up in here. Otherwise he knows not to put me in one of these closets._

The pilot tried to open his eyes, but found that he couldn't. He scrunched his eyes and felt adhesive tug at the surrounding skin. _Blindfolded by tape? Doc never did that before…Murdock called for the orderly who usually kept watch over him when he ended up in solitary, but tape over his mouth held his lips firmly together._

_Please be a dream, please be a dream_, Murdock prayed silently as he tried to reach up and rip off the tape. His heart plummeted into his stomach when he found his hands were bound tightly behind his back. _I'm not in a straight jacket—this ain't the VA! _The pilot managed to roll himself over; he discovered he was dressed only in his shorts and his legs were tied together. Murdock yelled again, but it only came out as a muffled grunt. He thrashed around, desperately trying to think of a way out of this mess, but only one thought remained on his mind: Lola would pay dearly for this.

****

Lola watched the closed circuit feed in the surveillance room from the four cells the A-Team occupied. Murdock had been the first to show definite signs of consciousness by struggling violently against his bonds, trying to break free. The brunette clutched the pilot's sacred leather jacket as she watched the heart-wrenching scene play out on the floor above.

_How could I do this to him?_ Lola asked herself with her eyes misting over. _This wasn't supposed to happen this way._

_What did you think was going to happen?_ a little voice whispered sarcastically in the brunette's mind. _You're such an idiot!_

_You were the one who told me that I should do what was best for my team!_ Lola thought back. _This is your fault! Why did you tell me the opposite of what I should've done?_

The voice laughed harshly. _I'm not your conscience, I'm the devil's advocate! I just give you the opposite view on a given situation, nothing more. You need to be responsible for your own actions._

_All is not lost,_ thought the brunette. _I still need to call the boss about the success of the mission…we could still be free this time tomorrow, somewhere far away from here._

_But will you be happy without Murdock? _the voice asked before leaving Lola alone with her thoughts.

"Lola, what's the matter with you?" Robyn questioned. When the brunette failed to respond to her name a second time, the blonde said, "Hey, Alia!"

"What?" asked Lola, waking from her trance.

Robyn stared dumbfounded at her friend with her hands on her hips. "I don't believe you!" she exclaimed. "You don't answer to your own name anymore, and you've been carrying around that guy's jacket like that dumb fuck kid with the blanket in the 'Peanuts' strip for an hour now!"

"Shut your fucking mouth, whore, before I shut it for you!" snarled Lola.

"I'd like to see you try, bitch!" Robyn challenged as she rose into a fighting stance. Lola laid Murdock's jacket on her chair and took up a similar stance in front of the blonde.

"Hey!" yelled Jazz as she leaped between her battling friends. Neither Lola nor Robyn paid Jazz any mind and tried to swing at each other around her. Jazz tried to grab Lola's arm, but caught Robyn's fist in her chin instead. "Stop it you two!" the black woman hollered as she took a step back from the fight and rubbed her jaw. "You're friends, remember?"

Lola and Robyn continued punching and kicking each other furiously, ignoring Jazz and Xiang completely. "They've had their tiffs before, but this one takes the cake," muttered Xiang. "Probably should get them to stop."

"Only way I can think of is to hose 'em down," replied Jazz. "Works for dogs."

"This is expensive computer equipment! We can't get this stuff wet!"

"Ok, fire extinguishers then."

"Don't the chemicals in those cause blindness?"

Jazz sighed, "Ok, we're down to one last option. Pick which one you want to tackle."

"Lola. Robyn's nasty when she gets like this," replied Xiang.

By this time, Robyn and Lola had dragged each other to the floor and were rolling around, beating each other senseless. Jazz and Xiang leaped onto the blonde and the brunette respectively, and wrestled to pin down the fighters. A few minutes later, the black woman and the Chinese woman managed to drag the two apart. All four women sat on the floor panting.

"What the hell is wrong with you two?" exclaimed Jazz. "You've never fought like this before!"

Lola wiped blood from a cut on her lip with her sleeve. "Robyn's the problem!" she retorted. "She's been giving me shit all day about this mission, and I got tired of it!"

"What?" cried Robyn as she dabbed at her bloodied nose. "You've been acting strange since you called us up this evening with the plans! You're like one of those undercover cops who becomes a criminal after spending so much time hanging around drug dealers—the A-Team made you into one of them."

"Did not!" Lola replied defensively. She looked around to the faces of her three friends and realized that that lame comeback was all she could defend her behavior with. Robyn, Xiang, and Jazz all wore looks that plainly said, "Yeah, right. You can't fool us. You've crossed over."

"Fine!" huffed Lola. "I will admit that I've been out of character today, but I'm still the Lola Sanchez you've known for twenty years. Now that that's settled, I'd better call the boss and see what the last part of his plan is before Decker and his boy scouts storm the fence."

Lola picked herself up off the floor and went into the office next door. She shut the door behind her and sat at the desk. After she picked up the phone and dialed, the brunette heard the familiar dispatcher answer. "This is Cain One calling Empress One," said Lola.

A click as the call was transferred, then, "This is Empress One, go ahead, Cain One," answered a curt, masculine voice.

"The mission's successful, Stockwell," Lola replied. "We have the A-Team locked up at Alliance Technologies in Las Cruces. There is no easy way they can escape, and we've got all the files you asked for."

"Very good, Miss Sanchez," Hunt Stockwell said appreciatively. "This will help your team get pardoned before too long."

Lola froze a moment. "Excuse me?" she asked.

Stockwell sighed, "I said, good work. I'll send Abel One through Abel Eight over there to relieve you and your team of the A-Team. They'll meet you out in the back southwest sector in half an hour."

"No, no, no! You know what I meant! What did you mean by this will help us eventually get free?"

"We've had the same deal for fifteen years, Miss Sanchez. You and your team go on the missions I tell you to until I feel that you've paid your debt, or the police find you on their doorstep one morning." 

"This 'deal' is off, Stockwell," Lola growled into the mouthpiece. "You said this would be the last job. I'm sick and tired of doing all your goddamn dirty work!"

The brunette could practically hear the smile on the other end of the line. "When did I ever say I would give you leave?" Stockwell asked sarcastically. "You're much too valuable to let go at this stage in the game. You've been in on everything from the beginning."

"That's precisely the point! I can call up the platoon of US Army personnel outside this compound and spill everything on all your little schemes over the past few years. You'd be locked up before you can say 'Leavenworth'."

"I don't think so, Miss Sanchez. Once I tell them of you and your team's many indiscretions, including involvement in several key assassinations and stolen government property, you'll be the ones worrying about getting attacked in the shower. Remember: _I am the master of blackmail."_

"You fucking bastard!" Lola snarled.

"Funny. I think that description fits you better, Miss Sanchez. You slept with Lieutenant Peck the other night, correct?"

Stockwell's last comment took the brunette completely off guard. "Who the hell told you that?" demanded Lola. _This bit of misinformation could just save Murdock if I play along, she thought. _Who could possibly think I slept with Face instead of Murdock?__

"A little bird warned me that I should come down myself to make sure that my plan resolves out the way it's supposed to. That's why I'm standing outside the main gate beside Colonel Decker as we speak."

"_Robyn _told_ you? Why would she sell out to a gutless, slimy, evil prick like you? I'll personally tear out her tongue!"_

"Are we losing control of our people, Miss Sanchez?"

"Knock off the goddamn patronizing tone, Stockwell!"

"Why should I? After all, I am your father."

"You better run and hide, _Padre, because I made a blood oath to kill you on my fourteenth birthday. And that was _before_ I met you, asshole!"_

A click on the other end signaled that Stockwell had hung up. "Shit! We're screwed!" Lola cursed and slammed down the phone. _Ok, Lola, she thought to herself, __what do you do now? We gotta get outta here before Stockwell penetrates the outer defenses since he's definitely going to set us up to take the fall. On the other hand, if I ditch the A-Team, they're gonna be blackmailed to work as his slaves, just like my girls and me. Damn these catch-22's! And on top of that, I have to find out why Robyn's been snitching on me! Perfect!_

_Hang on…I thought I didn't care for anybody. Well, I still think BA's an idiot, but Murdock…I can't let Stockwell fuck him the way he fucked me.  I honestly **love**_ _him, more than anyone I've ever met. Boy, did I make the wrong choice! There's got to be something I can do to at least make the situation a teensy bit better…_

****

"So what's the news from Stockwell?" Xiang, cleaning a 9mm, asked Lola as the brunette returned to the surveillance room. Lola promptly screamed and punched the wall. The Chinese woman looked the brunette over, then replied, "That good, eh?"

"That fucking asshole!" Lola spat. "He's not letting us go, not in a million years. Instead, we're taking the fall for him while he disappears back to Langley with the A-Team. How many times did I say that Stockwell was going to screw us in the ass again?" The brunette whipped around and locked eyes with Robyn. "And he doesn't need your help, Robyn," she growled.

"What are you talking about, Lola?" the blonde asked.

"You know exactly what I'm talking about! You've been ratting on us to Stockwell! How could you sell out your friends to him?"

"What?" exclaimed Xiang, Jazz, and Robyn in union. Robyn continued, "I did nothing of the sort!"

"Oh, yeah? Then why did Stockwell tell me that you told him I fooled around with one of the A-Team on the mission? Hell, where did he get the idea that I slept with Face the other night? I told Xiang and Jazz about Murdock the day after you were going on with those double entendres about Face's nickname. You're the only one who would possibly think that I would have sex with Face. Explain that!"

Xiang and Jazz turned and fixed their gaze on Robyn, along with Lola. "I don't know why he would say that," the blonde replied, her voice barely above a whisper. "All I know is I had to check in with him back in Arizona to give him an update. I think I made an offhand comment about wanting to be in your shoes, Lola, because Face's hot. Stockwell must've misconstrued that and thought that you would give in to temptation and sleep with Face. I swear I didn't say anything else! You're my best friend since we were kids! I wouldn't do anything to betray your trust like that, especially not to Stockwell."

Lola stared deep into Robyn's eyes for what seemed like an eternity before saying, "I believe you. I'm sorry, Robyn. I've been making some huge mistakes lately."

"I'm sorry too, Lola," the blonde replied.

"Now that's figured out," interrupted Xiang, "what're we going to do about Stockwell feeding us to the feds?"

"Can't just hang around and wait for the army to come and get us," Jazz agreed.

"Well, I just happen to have a half-assed plan that might work," answered Lola. "I studied the blueprints of this compound thoroughly, and I think I found an escape route. Only problem is that someone is going to have to stay behind and distract Stockwell and Decker so the others can get out safely. I volunteer myself."

Xiang and Jazz exclaimed, "No, Lola!"

"No is right," agreed Robyn. "I'll stay behind. I've been a pain in the ass all day anyway."

"Not a chance!" Lola replied. "Stockwell found us because I was stupid enough to leave behind evidence for Decker. Besides, I got you all into this mess fifteen years ago. It's time I started making up for it."

Robyn locked eyes with Lola and sighed, "You're not giving up, are you? Ok, what's this plan of yours?"

****

Lola loaded up the canister gun in Jones' office and looked out the window to the crowd of army personnel outside the main gate. Soon the men in green would break down the barrier. _Not if I have any say in the matter, thought the brunette. She aimed into the center of the platoon outside and fired. The men dived for cover, and Lola quickly launched the remaining canisters of tear gas over the main gate._

_That oughta keep them busy long enough for my girls to get out_, Lola thought. _Now to make sure the guys get out as well. I don't have much time. She grabbed a bag filled with the A-Team's clothes and ran out of the office towards Murdock's cell._

****

_Ninety-nine bottles of beer on the wall, ninety-nine bottles of beer_, Murdock sang in his head. It was pointless trying to even talk to himself with the duct tape gag. _Why can't I ever find a decent woman to try to hang onto? How could I tell her all that stuff about me? Hell, nobody outside the Doc and the team knows that much! How could I fall for her so hard? Take one down and pass it around…_

Murdock stiffened when he heard the door to his cell open and felt a blast of cool air on his face. He listened to his visitor's footsteps to try to guess at their identity since he was blindfolded. They were too light for a man. Then he caught a whiff of the visitor's lavender perfume.

_Alia. Or should I say, Lola Sanchez._

The pilot braced himself in case an opportunity to escape arose as he felt Lola kneel next to him. This whole escapade reminded him too much of the CIA: he couldn't figure out who was the enemy until they started the horrific mind games. Murdock felt Lola's fingers tug at the duct tape over his mouth.

"Hi, Murdock," the brunette greeted her prisoner after she pulled off the gag. "I changed my mind. I'm getting you guys outta here. Now do you want me to rip off the duct tape in one go or do it little by little?"

Murdock chuckled and wheezed, his mouth cottony from being gagged. "I'm supposed to trust you now, huh? _You are crazy!"_

"Do you want to go back to LA or not?" asked Lola. "I'm letting all four of you go before my keeper comes to collect you, and believe me, you don't want to get mixed up with him. If you think I'm a lying, conniving, despicable creature, I look like a fucking girl scout next to him."

Lola helped Murdock sit up. She then tore off the duct tape over his eyes, taking some of his eyebrows with it. The pilot glared at his captor, his once mirthful brown eyes filled with contempt. The brunette immediately regretted removing the blindfold. She loved his youthful gaze; it was the puppy dog eyes that had enraptured her and brought her here now.

"Look, Murdock--" Lola tried to explain.

"No, _you_ look!" the pilot exclaimed. "You'd better look in a goddamn mirror and see just how much of a manipulative and loathsome whore you really are! You don't give a damn about anybody other than yourself. You just step on whoever's in your way and don't care how much you screw them up in the process!"

The brunette's eyes flashed. She raised her hand as if to slap Murdock, but instead jabbed an accusing finger in his face. "I did look in a fucking mirror!" Lola screamed. "I saw exactly how vile I am! I wouldn't have come here if I didn't. Now there's a man named Stockwell who's coming here to take you, but I'm not going to let him. He wants to steal your lives. I know because he blackmailed me into working for him for the past fifteen years. There's no way to escape him once he's got his claws in you. If I don't take you guys out of here, Stockwell's going to mold you into something like me: a weapon at his beck and call."

Murdock laughed in Lola's face. "You expect me to believe you after all the lies you've told over the past few days? Put the duct tape back on and leave!"

The brunette set her lips into a line. "Not everything was a lie. All that stuff about my childhood in New York was true. I can't lie about something like that. Now if you really want to stay here and see what my boss is going to do to you, I'll go. But I'll warn you it's going to be pretty damn close to the mind games of the CIA and the mental torture in Vietnam. I know how much you suffered through those years. I wouldn't put you through that crap again. Someone like you doesn't deserve that kind of treatment." Lola whipped a switchblade out of her pocket and cut through Murdock's bonds. "So I'm dragging you with me. You can do whatever you like to me later, when you all get out alive."

Lola tossed the pilot his clothes. Murdock rubbed his wrists and ankles to get the circulation back into his limbs as his blood boiled. _How can she come back here after all the crap she's put me through and act as if she's my friend? _the pilot thought as he dressed himself. He waited until Lola turned her back on him, then lunged at the brunette. The pilot slammed her against the wall, stunning Lola momentarily, and grabbed the knife out of her hand.

"You're not very bright, Lola" Murdock growled in the brunette's ear as he pinned her against the wall. He pocketed the switchblade and held fast to Lola's throat. "You don't screw with people's minds as if it's some sort of game, then turn your back on them. How many other guys did you sleep with and then make them think that you truly loved them when you were just using them for your own pleasure? You're one sick, twisted freak to get off on that!"

Lola struggled against Murdock's weight, but couldn't budge. The sharp mood swing in the pilot frightened her to no end. She knew he could maim or even kill her if he really wanted to, but she prayed he wouldn't do something else that he would later seal off in that far corner of his mind where he stored his horrible memories.

"Murdock!" Lola said in a terrified whisper. "I—I do love you! That's why I'm here! I'm letting you go. I swear on my mother's grave I'm telling the truth!"

"Bullshit!" the pilot hissed. He grabbed the brunette by her hair and smashed the back of her head into the doorframe.

"You're hurting me!" cried Lola. She felt hot blood trickling down her neck from her wound. "Murdock, stop! You're scaring me!"

"Oh, you think that hurts?" Murdock sneered. "Why don't you try havin' your heart broken by the one person you've been able to trust enough to expose your soul to sometime?"

Lola watched in horror as the usual mischievous glint in the pilot's eyes faded into dark cruelty. Who was this man? Was this the part of himself that Murdock kept buried from view? The brunette couldn't believe what she'd done to transform such a sweet man into a monster. She had to try to rectify the situation before something horrible happened.

"Murdock!" the brunette pleaded. "You're the only person I've ever known that's been able to peel away every layer I've built up around me as protection. You saw the real me; the person I've always wanted to be, but never thought I could. You changed me, Murdock; you and your friends, the A-Team, changed me. Please, Murdock, believe me!"

Tears welled up in Lola's eyes, the first tears she'd cried since her mother died. She couldn't remember being this terrified in her entire life. Maybe it was due to the fact she was finally faced with the wake of destruction she left after each job and it sickened her that she could be as cruel and despicable as her loathsome father. The brunette let the tears fall, almost wishing that Murdock would end her suffering.

Murdock's face barely softened as Lola cried. "Don't cry crocodile tears for me," he growled. He grabbed the brunette around her shoulders and spun her around so that her back pressed into his chest. The pilot twisted Lola's arms behind her back and hissed in her ear, "Now you're gonna take me to my friends and let us go if you don't want to have your arms broke up like matchsticks, _comprende_?"

"All too well," Lola whispered in reply.

****

Hannibal lay, bound and gagged as Murdock had been, and ran escape plan after escape plan through his mental tests, each time coming up empty. _Gotta admit, Alia—Lola and her friends are thorough_, he thought. _They didn't put the team together, lock us in a shed with any sort of tools, or make any stupid mistakes like most of our enemies. This just makes escaping that much more interesting—hopefully. Now, if I could only find something to cut with…_

Suddenly the colonel heard someone open the door to his cell. From the sound of shuffling feet he could tell that there were two people, one forcing the other in front. The person in back shoved the one in front to the floor hard. When the person on the floor moved, Hannibal guessed to get up, the other hit him, or her, the colonel corrected himself, causing the one on the floor to gasp in pain.

"Don't you dare move!" growled a familiar voice with a Texas accent.

"Murdock!" Hannibal mumbled through his gag.

"You all right, Colonel?" asked the pilot. He realized his mistake when Hannibal mumbled an unintelligible reply. "Sorry, Colonel," Murdock said as he pulled off his commanding officer's gag and blindfold.

"Boy, am I glad to see you, Murdock!" coughed Hannibal as the pilot cut the bonds on his hands with the switchblade, then handed the colonel the knife to cut his feet free. When Murdock pulled the colonel to his feet, Hannibal caught sight of Lola huddled in a corner holding the back of her head. "What's she doing here?" he asked as Murdock tossed him his clothes.

"She claims she released me so we could escape from her boss," growled the pilot as he handed the switchblade to the colonel. "I don't buy it. Her friends are probably lying in wait for us somewhere in the building so we'll get caught by Decker."

After he finished dressing, Hannibal grabbed Lola by the arm and hauled her to her feet. "Ok, where are your friends?" the colonel demanded. He wrenched the brunette's arm, and she gasped in pain.

"They're gone!" exclaimed Lola. "I'm the only one left. They don't even know I'm helping you guys escape before Decker and my boss come to get you!"

"I say we beat her senseless and tie her up in here, just like she did to us, Hannibal," Murdock hissed. "She's useless anyway. We can find Face and BA without her."

Lola's eyes widened in horror as she shrank away from her former lover. Hannibal placed a fatherly hand on the pilot's shoulder. "Murdock," the colonel whispered. "I know what she did to you was unforgivable, but that doesn't justify beating her and you know it."

Murdock looked at his friend and realized his mistake. "I was just toying with her," the pilot muttered. "Wanted to see her suffer as she made me suffer."

The colonel clapped the pilot on the back and turned his attention to Lola. "Now we're going to lock you up in here and then go find our friends."

"You won't find them in time," replied Lola, looking only at Hannibal. "This place is built like a maze and the cells we put you four in aren't on the blueprints I showed you. Now Decker's men are probably close to fully recovered from the last round of tear gas I launched at them and will resume cutting through the front gate shortly. The only way you guys can get out of here safely is if you let me help you. I swear I won't do any funny shit, and if I do, all four of you can beat the hell out of me. I deserve it."

Hannibal shrugged, "Can't take any chances. Lead the way, Lola, but remember: we're watching you."

****

_Oh God!_ thought Face as he lay tied up in his cell in another corner of Alliance Tech. He had managed to wriggle himself into one corner of the room so the wall could help him feel a little secure. _We've been through some hellish times, but this—this is something else. I can't see, can't call for help, none of the other guys are in here with me—wherever here is. Where the hell are my clothes? I don't even want to think about how I got in this state! I feel so violated!_

_Snap out of it! Gotta think, Face, gotta focus. I need a plan. Where's Hannibal when you need him?_

The lieutenant heard the door to his cell open and felt the footsteps of two—no, three people enter. "Face, it's Murdock and me," said Hannibal as he knelt next to his lieutenant and cut his restraints. The pilot tossed Face his clothes while restraining Lola. "We don't have much time if Lola told us the truth," the colonel continued. "Decker's on his way in and we still need to get BA."

The lieutenant quickly pulled on his clothes and tried to get his bearings on the situation. "Why's Lola here?" he asked.

"Information," replied the colonel. "Seems she conveniently knows where BA is and the only way out of here."

"Don't worry, Face," Murdock interjected, "we can take turns slapping her around once we get out of Decker's reach." He wrenched Lola's arms so hard they popped.

"Fuck!" hissed the brunette. "Why don't you just beat me within an inch of my life right now so we can get it over with? I think I'm gonna need stitches in the back of my head anyway."

"Murdock!" yelled Hannibal. He yanked Lola out of the pilot's grasp and examined her. The brunette had a split lip, a good shiner developing, bruises all up her arms, and dried blood encrusted on her neck and hair around a deep gash. "Did you do all this to her?"

"Wish I could say so," the pilot growled. "I just gave her the gash and a few of the bruises. The rest she had when she 'rescued' me."

"He's right," agreed Lola. "I got in a catfight earlier. My friend and I didn't exactly see eye-to-eye on the current situation, so we tried to claw each other's eyes out."

"Enough chit-chat," Hannibal barked. "Let's get a move-on before Decker catches us."

****

BA lay struggling with his bonds in yet another cell on the opposite side of the Alliance Tech building. Pissed as all hell for being in such a situation, he strained with all his might to break his bonds barehanded. However, the sergeant only succeeded in slicing his wrists on the zip ties. Each time his bonds cut deeper into his flesh, BA cursed Lola's name.

_Lola's gonna pay, Lola's gonna pay_, the sergeant thought repeatedly, focusing his rage. _Can't believe she could do somethin' like that to Murdock! He's a fool, but he don't deserve treatment like that. First chance I get, I'm breakin' that woman's face! Don't care if she's a woman, she deserves it._

BA froze when he heard the door to his cell open and three familiar voices muttering. "Hannibal!" he yelled into his gag. "Faceman! Murdock! Get me outta here!"

"Hold still, BA, and we'll get those zip ties off you," Hannibal answered as he whipped out the switchblade. Once his hands were free, the sergeant tore off the duct tape over his eyes and mouth. Face handed BA the backpack with all his jewelry and clothes in it since it was too heavy to toss.

"We've gotta hurry," Face said as BA got dressed. "Decker's on his way in along with a platoon of army personnel, if Lola's intelligence can be trusted."

The sergeant paused in putting on his forty pounds of gold necklaces. "Lola?" he growled. "Where is that little--" He caught sight of Murdock holding her in the corner and lunged with his teeth bared in a snarl.

Hannibal jumped in front of BA and tried to hold him back with some of Face's help. Lola, on the other hand, threw herself in front of Murdock, as if she wanted the sergeant to pummel her into the ground.

"BA, we don't have time to get revenge before Decker finds us!" the colonel shouted.

"Lemme at her!" snarled BA. "No one tricks the A-Team like that an' goes unpunished!"

Hannibal was about to continue the argument, but Lola exclaimed, "No, Hannibal! Let him take a swing at me! He's right—I deserve a broken jaw. C'mon, Baracus, let's see what you've got!" She gestured for the sergeant to nail her in her cheekbone.

Before the colonel could protest, BA pushed past him and swung hard at Lola's face with a ring-encrusted right hook. BA's fist connected with the brunette's jaw, knocking her off her feet and into Murdock's arms. Lola staggered to her feet and wiped away a trickle of blood from her mouth.

"Oh, come on!" the brunette spat. "That was a wussy punch! You didn't even break a tooth!"

BA was about to take another swing, but Hannibal caught his arm. "Secure that, Sergeant!" barked the colonel. "We've got to go NOW." Once BA stood down, Hannibal turned to Lola. "How do we get out of here?"

"Follow me," answered the brunette.

Lola jogged down the hallway with the four men on her heels. They turned so many corners down identical corridors and down twisty hidden staircases that the A-Team honestly believed that they couldn't have made it out of the building without Lola's guidance.

Finally, the group reached one of the labs in the sub basement, and the brunette halted in front of an odd door in a darkened corner. "This is part of a ventilation shaft that ends just on the other side of the perimeter fence," Lola panted, "right near where you hid the van. They built this shaft to double as an escape route for some strange reason so you guys don't have to crawl through or anything. Now get going before Decker comes down here!"

BA flung open the door, then whirled on Lola. "You'd better be right," he growled as he shook his fist in the brunette's face, "or I'll find ya and beat your face in!" The sergeant turned back to the tunnel, paused as if to think, then turned back to Lola. "On the other hand, maybe I'll just hit you—just in case you lied again." He swung, and BA's rings raked across her left cheek, slicing her face. With that, BA climbed into the ventilation shaft and disappeared.

Hannibal went to follow the sergeant, but turned to Lola before leaving. "You know what," he began, "I really liked you, Lola. I thought you'd make a good addition to the team, but you had to blow everything to pieces. Whatever trouble you have with your boss, we could've helped you if you'd only been up front with us. But now I don't want you to ever try to look any of us up. That is, if you ever get out of the state pen." Lola's eyes stung as Hannibal disappeared into the shaft.

Next up was Murdock. The pilot grabbed Lola by her shoulders and forced her to look into his eyes. "If any of Alia is in you, you'd know how much you hurt me," he murmured, "and that I never, ever want to see or hear from you again. As soon as I'm gone up that tunnel, you'll be erased from memory. Nothing of this will remain in my mind, and you know how good I am at forgetting things. Goodbye and good riddance, Lola." Murdock strode into the shaft without looking back once.

Only Face was left now. Before the lieutenant could speak, Lola cut him off. "Please, before you say how much you hate me for what I did, just promise me one thing. Look after Murdock for me, please?"

Face was speechless for several moments before he finally found his words. "How _dare_ you ask me to look after Murdock after what you did to him?" he spat. "You have absolutely no idea how much you've damaged him with this charade of yours! I'm surprised he's doing this well. He's been through so much, and if you knew him at all, you'd know how much crap he's been through before he even laid eyes on you." Face hauled off and slapped Lola with all his strength. "That's for Murdock!" he exclaimed, then slapped the brunette again. "And that's for thinking we won't look after one of our own." 

Lola gingerly touched her bleeding, swollen cheek as Face vanished into the ventilation shaft. A single, salty tear trickled from her eye and stung her wounds. "What the fuck was I thinking?" the brunette muttered to herself as she shut the door to the shaft and thought of what she should do next.

_What I need right now is one big fucking bottle of Tequila_, thought Lola. _Hell, I'll have enough salt with these tears I'm gonna cry. And I need a lime. Hey, I've still got that Molotov cocktail in my trunk…that ought to help me drown my sorrows even quicker than normal liquor._

Lola whirled around when she heard shuffling on the floor above her. It could be only one of two things, and neither option was remotely pleasant: Colonel Decker's men or a few of the Abels. The brunette darted off down another corridor to lead whoever was behind her away from the A-Team's escape route. The last thing she wanted was for the four men to get caught along with her. She doubted if her body could take another one of BA's punches.

Lola skidded to a halt when she raced up a set of stairs, turned a corner, and almost ran into a man. She looked up and came face-to-face with Hunt Stockwell and his yellow-tinted glasses. _Those always looked so stupid, yet he still wears them, the brunette thought._

"Ahh, Miss Sanchez," Stockwell said condescendingly, "just the person I wanted to see."

"Damn, why couldn't I have run into Colonel Decker?" moaned Lola. "At least he'd talk to me like an adult."

Stockwell ignored the brunette's comment. "Where are your friends and the A-Team?"

Lola forced a smile. "You just missed them. My friends ditched me, which gave the A-Team the upper hand. They overpowered me and escaped. Might want to check the woods, but I bet everyone's long gone."

Stockwell looked the brunette over. "You look terrible, Miss Sanchez," he said in his patronizing tone. "What happened? Did you walk into a wall?"

"Well, you have the face of a bulldog that's been run over, Stockwell," Lola shot back. "And that's being nice."

"I see they didn't break your jaw. Pity. I was hoping to enjoy some silence from you."

"I'd never give you the pleasure even if my tongue was cut out and my jaw was in splinters."

"However, I do so enjoy our recurring battle of wits."

Lola laughed, "Battle? Hell, you're not even armed!"

Stockwell grabbed the brunette roughly by the arm. "Enough games!" he hissed.

Lola looked down at Stockwell's hand, which was bruising her arm even more. "Ooo, you actually touched me," she cooed. "I thought you didn't want to dirty yourself with contact with the likes of me."

"Quiet, Sanchez! I have a surprise for you." Stockwell dragged the brunette down the hall and into a small, empty office. He then shoved Lola into a chair facing a small television and produced a videotape.

"Oh God, no!" shrieked Lola. "You're going to make me watch _Knight Rider_, aren't you? You know I hate that show! Couldn't you find a kinder way to torture me, like cutting off my fingers?"

"Will you be quiet?" Stockwell snarled. "Abel Four managed to return the surveillance systems to normal just a few minutes ago." He waved the tape under Lola's nose. "This is a security tape I managed to make as the A-Team left the building. I have a feeling you had a hand in their escape. Shall we see if I'm right?" He gestured to the TV and put the tape into the VCR.

The brunette hung her head as the tape played. _Fuck! All my work to try to redeem myself just got flushed down the crapper._

"Well, well, well!" Stockwell sneered. "I see you warned your lover about me."

Alia's stomach lurched. Of all the members of the A-Team, the pilot had the most to fear from Stockwell. She warned Murdock about her boss only to have him hunt the pilot down. _Oh, how I wish I would just drop dead right here, right now!_ thought the brunette.

Lola reluctantly raised her head to watch her former lover caught on video. But the segment of the tape only featured Face slapping the brunette and then escaping through the ventilation shaft. The camera never caught a glimpse of Murdock. _Stockwell still thinks that Face is my lover_, Alia thought and sighed ever so slightly in relief. _Play along! Maybe it'll keep Murdock from falling into his hands at least._

"You asshole!" hissed Alia. "You lay a hand on him, walk by his house, do anything, I'll kill you!"

Stockwell laughed derisively. "You're all talk, Lola. Besides, you won't have much of a chance to get me once you're inside a women's prison."

Lola spat in Stockwell's face. "I'll kill you! You just wait, Stockwell. One day when you least expect it, I'll come up behind you and slit your throat."

Stockwell shot the brunette a sinister grin. "Oh, that's going to help you in court," he sneered. "It's not good to threaten to murder the man who brought you to justice."

Lola laughed sarcastically. "Justice? I didn't think that word was in your vocabulary. Might've been better if you said I threatened to commit patricide, but then there'd be a nasty background check for you. Wouldn't want to tarnish that government spook rep you've fabricated so nicely through the years."

Stockwell advanced on his daughter, but Colonel Decker kicked in the door to interrupt. "Where are they?" Decker bellowed. "Where are Smith, Peck, and Baracus? I tried to get an answer out your men, but they just gave me the runaround. You'd better have held up your end of our deal, Stockwell, or--"

"They got away," replied Stockwell irritably, rolling his eyes. "Or rather Miss Sanchez here let them and her own team escape while she held us off. Looks like neither one of us got what we wanted, Colonel."

Decker's face turned the color of an eggplant at the news. He hated working with this snake Stockwell; he sensed the man had some hidden agenda like all CIA spooks. The only reason why the colonel agreed to work with Stockwell in the first place was that the G-man waved the chance of finally furthering his rank in the army by capturing two teams of criminals in one fell swoop. "You said this would go down without a hitch," Decker growled. "At least you got one of the people you were gunning for! I have to go back to base with egg on my face yet again because of you!"

"I'm sure you've had plenty of practice by now," said Stockwell. "After all, this is the third year you've been chasing the A-Team, and you still have nothing to show for it."

"Stop being an asshole, Stockwell!" Lola exclaimed. "After all, you had even worse luck trying to catch the A-Team. At least Colonel Decker has actually had them in custody multiple times, which is a helluva lot more than you can say."

"You shut your mouth," Stockwell hissed as he jabbed a menacing finger in Lola's face, "or I'll shut it for you!"

The brunette leaned back in her chair. "Excuse me, Colonel Decker, but I do believe that was a threat he made. Aren't officers of the law and other government employees with the power to arrest criminals not supposed to do that?"

"You're right," Decker agreed and pushed Stockwell roughly aside. "I'll take it from here, Stockwell. I sure hope you didn't give this woman her wounds, because if you did, I'd haul you off to jail so fast your head would spin right off. You can go and collect your shadows while I take this woman in on charges of espionage, theft, and possibly treason. Once the medic gets you cleaned up, you're looking at a long stay in prison, Miss Sanchez."

"Not nearly long enough," Lola muttered under her breath as Decker cuffed her and led her down the hall. "Not long enough at all to make up for this mistake."

****

Outside the compound, the A-Team exited the ventilation shaft and made their way toward the hidden van. No one spoke until all four of the men clambered into the vehicle and drove off towards California.

"I should've listened to you, BA," Murdock mumbled, breaking the silence. "I never should've trusted that—that—_bitch."_

Hannibal laid a supportive hand on the pilot's shoulder. "It's not your fault, Murdock. We should've seen the signs a long time ago." He turned back towards the front of the van and lost himself in his own musings. _Lola was just like that woman we ran into when we rescued Dr. Richter. Murdock had a dangerous fascination with her as well since she obviously was even more mentally unstable than he was. I should've known that if a woman like that showed up again he'd fall for her hard. Some commanding officer I am! I can't even help protect my men from themselves._

"I'm sorry, Murdock," BA said, uncharacteristically gentle and quiet. "I shouldn't have been so hard on ya."

"No, you were right, an' I was so very, very wrong," insisted Murdock.

"You're not the only one she fooled," Hannibal added. "She fooled all of us, and very well at that."

The pilot just mumbled unintelligibly and curled up in his seat.

Face watched as Murdock withdrew deep inside himself to try to repair the damage Lola left behind. The lieutenant could almost hear his friend's mental barriers slamming shut. Face wished he could do something besides pray that his friend wouldn't completely shut down like the incident that landed him in the VA in the first place. He touched Murdock on the shoulder as if to say, "I'm there for you if you need me."

Murdock surprised his friend by turning towards him and giving him a wan smile. "Step on it, BA," the pilot said. "I really need to get back to the VA." His eyes then fogged over, and he hummed some arbitrary tune. The rest of the team left Murdock alone for the rest of the drive back to LA.

****

The End

So…good? Bad? Plotting something? Tell me!

I wrote this as to be a lead-in for the fifth and final season. Now I realize that this raises more questions than it answers, and that's why I've got an idea for a sequel in the works. What I need from you, my dear reader, is your feedback on this story and whether or not I should take the time and effort to write a sequel. If no one's interested, I'll go work on other projects I've got in mind (or God forbid, my homework. Please don't make me do my homework!). :~)


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